Whoever came up with this phrase needs to come over and console my eight year old son, who happened to come in last place 3 out of 4 of his races last night. The 4th race he came in second to last. I felt so bad for the little thing. I watched from across the track as he lost the first race, his eyes filling, almost as if he was going to cry. It didn't help my pain to have Lexi come to me after he lost the third race and say, "Mom, I've been watching Jordan, and he hasn't even smiled one time!"
What do you do? We tried to console him, and tell him that he did an awesome job on his car, and that it didn't matter if he won or lost, he still had an awesome car. We tried to talk to him about having good sportsmanship, and explaining that someone always has to lose! Nothing helped...I guess at eight, it is a hard lesson to learn.
Jordan, I still think you are a winner!!! Love you, Mom
2 comments:
Ya know, I think sometimes that Pine Wood Derby does more harm than good. Dylan had a hard time also. I think Jordan did great. At least he has another year to do it.
Oh my goodness, I have SUCH a hard time with the Pinewood Derby. Seems like the kids who do most of the work on their own cars usually fare the worst in the race. The kids who win usually have the most help from parents (some parents get a little psycho about it all). It's just not right. When I was a den leader I saw many little guys who were so dejected after that evening--they'd worked so hard and won nothing. Winning isn't everything, but you'd never know that by the way we treat winners and losers at that race.
My oldest, after our first year, asked why they only have the winners keep racing. "The winners should get out and the losers should keep racing until everyone has a chance to win."
If only.
Jordan's car looked great, though! I hope he's okay.
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