I confess – in my heart, I am one of those competitive moms. I catch myself closely scrutinizing my kids for hints of special talents. I antagonize over missed windows of opportunity and mentally note their friends’ busy schedules. Sometimes I even feel like a failure, merely because my kids have not achieved greatness in the classroom or on the field (and for the record, my youngest is only 4 years old).

This parent-driven, kid-focused competition is reinforced throughout our society. I can guarantee you that behind every preteen superstar, you’ll find a savvy, ambitious mom or dad. And for every natural-born math genius, there are likely a hundred more kids spending hours with a tutor before dozing off at bedtime to multiplication tables on audio CD. I know a few of these kids myself.

In fact, I could easily be one of those moms, except for one nagging fact: my son just wants to be an ordinary kid.

Sure, he plays around with YouTube and stages music videos in his room, strobe lights and all. But when it comes to a shot at celebrity, he’s… well, just not that interested.

Acting lessons and auditions? Nah.

Taking a recreational sport to the next level when invited to try out for the competitive team? No thanks.

Expensive specialty camps to launch a career most adults would kill for? Not really.

If there’s one thing my son is sure of, it’s that he just wants to be an ordinary kid, with a lot of free time to play in the backyard, build random stuff and just generally waste time (or at least that’s what it looks like from the adult perspective).

Hence, Ordinary Kid was born. Because while there are all sorts of books, forums and resources out there for families with extraordinary kids, there’s not much for those of us who are opting our kids out of the pint-sized rat race, with the firm belief that in the long run, they will be just fine.

Want to get in touch? You can reach me at Denise (at) OrdinaryKid.com.