In todays world of "everyone wins" mentality, it is as important as ever to teach your child to lose. A lot of younger kid's sports programs do not keep score, and it's making the upcoming generations a big group of sore losers. Even at home, parents are letting their children always win at games they play. The "everyone wins" mentality is not setting up children for real life. As we all know, in real life, not everyone is a winner. In fact, more times than not you will be on the losing side. Without learning to lose with grace at an early age, kids these days start to lose and just give up.
My husband and I are very competitive people by nature. Both of us hate to lose. Our 2 1/2 year old daughter Makenna is the same way. She loves to win, but she isn't a sore loser when she loses. I am big on not letting her always win. Every night we race up the stairs to bed. She usually makes my husband carry her, and it's an all out race to see who can get up the stairs and into bed first. Sometimes they win and sometimes I win. Sometimes I let them win (don't tell my husband lol). It's okay to let them win sometimes. What is most important though, is teaching them that when they lose, not to give up. When Makenna and the little boy I nanny for play games, I don't help either of them win. When one of them lose they usually tell the other, "Good job!" and clap and get excited for them. They generally like to see the other succeed, even if that means they didn't. I have nannied for children that if they lost or I didn't let them win, they would storm off crying and refuse to play again. As she gets older, I don't expect my daughter to be excited that she lost. But with age, I hope comes the ability to realize that with hard work and determination, it can be her winning next time.
Parents...I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but not every child is an all-star. Except my kid of course ;) One day your children are going to experience losing. What kind of loser do you want them to be? One that stomps away crying or the one that doesn't give up?
Feel free to share your tips and stories below about teaching your children to lose. We would love to hear from you all!!
So important to teach them to lose gracefully.
ReplyDeleteTry and explain to your children that in any type of situation... You either a) Win or b) learn a life lesson. They may be able to accept defeat more graciously if they are still learning something from it.
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