I've been competing with my mother my whole life!! Not that I've wanted to, not by choice, because it was forced on my, by my mothers jealousy of any good thing, mostly in appearance, that would happen to me. I put in an engagedment picture in the paper, 6 yrs ago, of myself and fiancee, and she said ", you picked a picture that made you look good"! Then when I started atkins she looked up every negative article she could about atkins, and was reading them one by one to me. I did not respond, because I was so used to this behavior! So guess what, She's on it now, along with my dad. Theres a whole history of this between my mother, and I. She was Miss Kankakee, the town we lived and grew up in, I was a cheerleader. I had to be the best at everything I did, because I wanted to be told by my mom, just once, that I made her proud. It never happened! But I do admit she is alittle better. Anyway, hope this helps, Knowing that someone else experiences the same kind of hurt.