Oct 14 2008
Kids and Competition
My daughter asked for games at her birthday party. I was a little nervous about this idea because so many child experts that I’ve read about are very anti-competition. I wasn’t worried about my own kid – she wanted to have games – she’d asked for them after all. No, I was more worried about how the other kids, and the other parents might feel about it. Was is okay to declare one child the winner of each game, or was that not allowed now a days?
I’m happy to report that the kids all had a wonderful time. They absolutely loved the games. I even got some nice comments from parents too. They’d noticed, just as I had, that kids don’t play games at parties anymore, and it was a shame, considering how much fun they were having with their three legged races, and hot potato games.
We did have one little girl dissolve briefly into tears, but it wasn’t because she lost a game. She was frustrated that she was having trouble keeping her ping pong ball on her spoon. She wanted to do well for herself, she didn’t care about winning. All the kids were like that. They were in it for the fun. None of them cared who won. It was inspiring to watch in a way.
Sometimes I wonder if so-called child experts ever had kids or were kids because they talk such utter nonsence. Competition when it’s at the level of parents pushing their kids past their limits is bad, healthy competition like you had at the party is good.