I’m currently sat on the sofa watching our twin girls eat their lunch.
If a stranger walked into my house right now, they’d assume we were a very happy family at this moment in time.
However, if that stranger had walked in 20 minutes ago, it would have been a completely different story.
A story full of temper tantrums, tears and disappointment. Probably a little frustration thrown in too.
You see we were quite happily playing snakes and ladders, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before our nice family game would turn sour.
I could see the struggle build up inside of her when she rolled the dice and that one single dot stared up at her little, innocent face.
She knew.
She knew that by moving her counter one space she’d land on a snake.
The longest snake on the board, that would inevitably bring her right back down to the first row of the board.
Her eyes looked deep into mine with a questioning glance.
I could see she was hoping, wishing, for me to tell her to jump over the snake, but no, that’s not how this game was going to go down. Not today.
“Go on”, I said. “Down the snake you go”.
She groaned. She moaned. She even pleaded with me not to make her go down the snake, but I stuck to my guns.
“If you’re not going to play it properly, there’s no point in playing at all”.
She sucked it up and slid her counter down the snake.
I was winning. I was in the lead. Victory was in sight!
I rolled the dice.
3.
Nooo!
Now it was my turn to go down a snake.
She laughed now. Of course, it’s funny when it’s someone else going down the snake.
Slowly, she crept back into the lead.
The smile finally restored on her face.
It didn’t last long though.
Another roll of the dice saw me climbing the longest ladder on the board.
I was just four spaces away from that final square.
With one last roll of the dice, I landed on the finishing square and declared my victory!
The five year olds eyes saddened.
With a stomp of the foot and arms crossed firmly in front her chest, she stomped her way out of the room and into her bedroom where she sulked for a good five minutes.
Should I have let her win?
Nope!
You can’t always win in life. You have to suck it up and let the losses make you stronger.
Sorry kid. Maybe next time!
2 Comments
jeremy@thirstydaddy
August 29, 2017 at 2:41 am
My daughter is hyper-competitive. depending on the game there are times when I might let her win, but if its truly a chance game determined by the dice and not skills that she’s trying to learn, then sorry kid. Thems the breaks
Richard Foster
August 30, 2017 at 9:10 am
Hi there, just stopped by and read your story. I totally agree with your points that we will never win in our lives and as for our children, we should let them know that in order to let them grow up from failures.