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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle

Why being perfect isn’t really worth it

Julie Andrews in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins
Practically perfect in every way. Julie Andrews in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. Photograph: Disney Pictures/Rex/Shutterstock

I must congratulate Moya Sarner for accepting that being less than perfect is OK (I’m a recovering perfectionist. Here’s how I embraced the joy of ‘good enough’, 3 June). I was one of the lucky mums who read Bruno Bettelheim’s book A Good Enough Parent when I had my first child. It made me a much more relaxed mum.

However, I think there is a new influence to be “perfect” in schools, where there is never the idea of good enough. Teachers want every single bit of work the child does to be perfect. Please could someone find me a teacher somewhere who thinks what a kid does is OK, even though they know that it isn’t 100% what they might be capable of on a good day?
Annie Hall
East Preston, West Sussex

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