I know you must all be hating me for keeping you in the kind of suspense that I did. I know you have probably even lost sleep over this, and I am sorry. Buuuuut……the smiling green kids have completed their Trash to Treasure Projects! I could not tell you or show you prior to this small town huge competition – hard work like this needs to be kept in secrecy as to minimize the chance of some spy-like child being a total copy-cat! I would stick my tongue out now and make a bratty face, but then what would I be teaching my children?
And while on the subject of teaching my children, I need to refill my coffee. This is tough subject matter, right? Maybe we should all take 30 seconds and everyone grab a refresher and meet back here. Ready…go!
Okay. Now time for some real parenting talk. We Freaking LOST the Trash to Treasure Contest!
What, for the love of Earth is happening to this world? Did they not KNOW how much time I…er, we invested? Do they not KNOW the level of commitment on our end – the sweat and the tears? Do they not KNOW we do not even use our dryer or paper towels? We are full fledge dedicated greenies…shouldn’t that give us some sort of advantage?
Apparently not.
Well, this was the perfect “teachable moment” friends and I really hope I didn’t fail. Ever since we began making this project, I have made a point of talking to our kids about “sportsmanship” and being happy for the winner, smiling in defeat, enjoying the process and all kinds of other “good sport” stuff. They seemed pretty receptive to the idea of it and I was crossing my fingers confident that my words had gotten through and they were prepared for whatever decision the judge would come to.
In short…we did not win. We took our projects out of the tent somberly and just when I thought we were in the clear M began stomping her feet in protest. She was shouting something about “I am no mood to celebrate now, I don’t want to stay at the Earth Day festival, I want to go home…” Poor kid. I felt so bad because I know how much she wanted to win. E was his laid-back self and really could care less…he just wanted to get some slushie they were serving in another tent.
As parents, I think all too often we try to protect our children and shield them from the disappointment of losing. We want them to feel like winners in all they do and it breaks us when they don’t. We try to make life “fair” and equal with great intentions. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking has turned the art of competition into the disillusion that we are all winners when in fact we are not. Some of us are actually better at certain things. Sometimes we do not win and it is during these losses that we are taught many valuable lessons about life. Losing shapes us and defines who we become just by the experiences in themselves. Without losing, how can ever appreciate how it feels to win?
So today, my hope is that by sharing our story of losing…that we can be reminded as parents how important it really is to NOT be the winner every time. How to take a disappointment and turn it into a learning experience that will help make us winners next time. How to in fact, create an awesome loser!
What I hope our kids learned? I hope they learned that life is not always fair. That they may not always be the best and that the most important part of competing is the fulfillment from within. It is great and fun to put that competitive drive into high gear, feeling adrenaline and pushing yourself further than you may even dreamed possible. And if by chance that effort was simply not good enough…to accept defeat with dignity, grace and a smile.
My biggest goal then? Creating awesome losers. So I ask you…are you creating winners or awesome losers too?
Image Credits:
http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/photofiles/list/1319/1819medal.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/A_small_cup_of_coffee.JPG
I’m thrilled to know such huge losers, and I know everyone else is too.
LMAO!!! You can probably even see this big “L” on my forehead all the way in Canada huh?