Should young kids learn how to lose?
United States
April 19, 2008 4:35pm CST
My ds had his first t-ball game today and it was the strangest thing I've ever seen. It's been a few years since my dd was in t-ball, but we lived in a different part of the country. Perhaps it's the laidback nature of where we live now that makes the game so different here. Every child batted in each inning and there were no outs even though there really were. There was no score kept. Why? I know that young children don't understand everything about the game or how it's played and perhaps, to an extent, they are disadvantaged.....but at the same time, shouldn't they be taught from the very beginning that not everybody gets a turn every time and that someone will win and someone will lose and that's okay?
2 responses
@kezabelle (2974)
•
20 Apr 08
Yes losing is a lesson every child needs to learn and so is accepting it gracefully without a tantrum, make them realise its ok to be upset that they lost but to not be nasty over it hiding them from it wont do them any good as they grow up.
1 person likes this
• United States
20 Apr 08
My dd was an only child for four and a half years and she was a very sore loser when she started preschool. It was never our intention for her to be that way, but things just became what they were and since she was our first and only, we didn't realize some of the behaviors were abnormal. Luckily she had a great preschool teacher who taught her and us how to change that. My ds has played many games with us at home and it's tough, but he's learning how to lose gracefully. At only four, I do think that takes a while though.
@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
20 Apr 08
If society coddles children and they never learn how to lose, because they will at some time, we do them a great dis-service, and when life doesn't work out how they want its no reason to not try. Nobody wins all the time, I explained it to my son like this, I said, "There are winners and there are losers, if you win, great, enjoy the moment, it doesn't happen all the time. If you lose, don't take defeat as a complex, tomorrow is a new day and new game will be played. If you lose, learn why you lost. There is a lesson in everything, not just sports. People love to learn but they don't always like to be taught."
• United States
20 Apr 08
I think it's a great idea to help them get a lesson out of losing. I know with my dd I always try to point out how different situations could have been handled other ways and I think it works the same with games.
