THERE IS SUCH THING AS A "LOSER"

I already know that not everyone will agree with me on this one but I got to thinking about this the other day when I lost the chili contest at Jamie's work (I was a loser). Now days everything is becoming so politically correct that some parents are adopting a sense of entitlement for their children and buying into the idea that "everyone is a winner" and everyone is entitled to a prize or a trophy etc. regardless of the outcome.

Now obviously I am not talking about the actual person themselves being a winner or a loser but there are SITUATIONS in life where you truly are the winner or you are the loser. I think that kids need to be taught this.

I will never forget when Molly was is second grade and I was the room mother for her Halloween party. I had set up a game where I divided the class into two teams. There was a plastic pumpkin on each end of the room. Then each team had a pumpkin filled with kernels of corn. Each person from the team had to get a teaspoon of corn....run it across to the empty pumpkin...and dump it in.  Once the timer went off, the team that filled up their pumpkin the most with the kernels of corn won. WELL....after the game was over I had announced... "Congraaaatulations to team A for being the winners of the gaaaame!"  I was quickly interrupted by Molly's teacher who said..."Well now, everybody won. We are all winners."   Molly (who had even been on the losing team) looked up at me with scrunched eyebrows and said "How can we all be winners? They won."

I understand what the teacher was trying to do. She didn't want any of the kids feelings to be hurt.  But honestly, I think we need to teach kids at a very early age that there are things they will win at AND there are things they will lose at. There will be times that they will be sad and get their feelings hurt. Not every applicant gets the job they interviewed for. Not every girl or guy gets to marry the person they've been dating. Both teams do not win the Superbowl or the World Series. Not every kid gets into the college of their choice. Not every political candidate becomes President. These are just facts of life.  By adopting the idea that everyone is a winner I believe it diminishes the accomplishment of a goal that a person has set for themselves. Also, if our child knows, that regardless of the outcome of a situation, that they are going to get some reward either way...it makes for a lazy, entitled, person.

It is ok for our children to feel disappointment. It will only make their accomplishments feel that much sweeter. My hope is that we will allow our children to fail, comfort them when they do, and show them how to pick themselves up and go at it again. I believe if we do this we will have prepared them to be winners in life.

"It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner." ~ Vince Lombardi

God gives us HOPE when there seems to be none. ~ Your friend, Lib