Saturday, July 21, 2007

The meaning of life? It's in the cards.

Yesterday Anna and I played her Littlest Pet Shop game, which involves moving around the board to collect one each of 4 colored chips, then making it home before the other person. If you land on a spot with monkey business (a picture of toy monkeys), you get to take one chip away from an opponent if you need one of the colors they have.

Each time Anna approached the monkey business, she got giggly and squirmy and told me that she WOULD take one of my pieces. Then, if she had more chips than me she would gloat.

"That's not good sportsmanship, honey," I told her.

Anna made the universal and exaggerated "Oooooooooh" face, complete with raised eyebrows. "I didn't know that, sorry."

We are still working on her not doing the end zone dance every time she wins a game, but she is learning.

I proceeded to win 3 out of 3 games much to her disappointment. I asked her if she wanted to play one more time, because she still had a chance to win one. "No way , mom," She said matter of fact, with her arms crossed, then she picked up a handful of game pieces and chucked them in my general vicinity.

"Anna, again- bad sportsmanship. Help me clean this up please."

And she did. Surprisingly, after only a few minutes of sulking she was up for the challenge of a new game. I explained that on rainy days as a child- or when our mother was behaving like a beast and nothing we did was good enough so as punishment we had to stay inside, which of course I didn't tell her- my brothers and I played a game called Kings On The Corner.

We really enjoyed playing; Anna enjoyed learning and I enjoyed watching her pick up the game without a hitch. Of course I won, but not because I didn't help her play, it just worked out that way. Despite losing AGAIN, she admitted it was a lot of fun and she wanted to play again one day with me , and maybe even her dad.

A little while later while I washing the dishes, she came in and said, "You know mom, it's OK to lose sometimes... it's not like it's going to damage your life or anything."

I'm so glad that by not letting her win all the time that I am teaching her that losing and failure are a normal part of life. Despite losing 4 games within an hour, she has learned that a little thing like that isn't going to stop her from enjoying these thing in the future. She's learned to suck it up and to pick up the pieces, literally. After a brief mourning period , of course.

Very profound, coming from a 6 year old I think. And I thought I was teaching her something. ;)

9 comments:

... said...

great lesson for all of us. she was also getting the added benefit of her mom spending time with her. that's priceless and will have lasting results, also.

Benjamin Loewen said...

I completely agree with you.

My mother used to beat me in games all the time and then rub it in my face. I'd cry because I didn't feel like I was succeeding at anything in life and felt as big as a flea and she'd laugh more.

Don't do that. ;-P

(And how the heck did the commenter above me get a flash photo in there? I can't even get mine to look non-pixely, despite resizing my photo many times to fit that exact square size.)

Mary said...

Thanks Diana, I try to spend time with my girls :D

Pink, I am so loving your honesty! And no, i would never do that... that would be poor sportsmanship! LOL!

As far as the picture above, it may be a gif image which is basically a bunch of images merged together to make a movie. ;)

Slackermommy said...

Doesn't that just warm your heart? You are obviously doing a good job.

Anonymous said...

I don't let my daughter win, either. At least not all the time! Great lesson!

Not So Anonymous Michelle said...

That's really great she is learning like that! I think it's fantastic for her age to be picking up on that, and for you to spend time with her teaching her about games and losing/winning/sportsmanship, that's so important. :)

Holly Schwendiman said...

Love it. It's a tough balance between helping them learn, teaching them and then realizing you're the student. ;)

Hugs,
Holly

Anonymous said...

Good for you. I can't wait until my kids are older so I can get them on the basketball court and teach them about losing.

Anonymous said...

thats great that she's learning to be a good sport. :)