Winning at Losing
Written By Pete Nelson
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Real Families, Real Solutions: Jack hates to fail at anything — from Candy Land to T-ball.
My 4-year-old, Jack, is full of boundless joy and enthusiasm for everything he does — except when he fails to measure up to his own expectations. I first saw this on a warm April afternoon. I was pitching baseballs to him — spring training, we called it — lobbing them in as softly as I could, saying whenever he missed, "Good swing. Almost. One more." Suddenly, after one miss too many, he dropped his bat and went to sulk at the foot of a tree, chin in hands. "I can't do it," he said. "I'm no good at baseball."
Jack doesn't like to lose, or fail, at anything. Who does? At his age, it seems particularly hard. He's yet to grasp the limitations of his body, and he overestimates his abilities. "I'm the best in the whole wide world," he'll say. "I know everything about [fill in the blank]."
