Anonymous wrote:Do you mean cool or chill?
I live in a slightly cheaper part of Bethesda and there are lots of chill parents who drink beer in their front yard and just hang out. There are also crazy intense or competitive ones, but I take a live and let live attitude towards them.
But Im not at all cool—I’m sitting here in my Old Navy shorts with skechers i got at costco at a house rental at deep creek with my minivan parked out front. And I might turn on an 80s pop/new wave mix from spotify shortly.
So chill —yes, cool,— no.
I tend to think that people who are cool tend not to be very chill, IME, but I’ll admit that’s not universally true.
I'm with you, PP! I've always said one of the great reliefs of being a parent is not having to worry about being cool anymore. I do enjoy my beer drinking, nerdy pop culture, new wave, and dragging my kids on hikes, but that was me as a dorky 20 year old, just without the kids.
That said, I do know some cool parents, and they live all over the place in rich neighborhoods and very middle class ones. Chill is more environmentally influenced, I think it's hard to stay totally chill when other parents set the tone for how kids are scheduled, how they meet, etc.