Have you ever seen a child have a full-blown meltdown when they lose? Not want to play again? Refuse to keep playing the game because they know they are about to lose? Only play against kids who they know they can beat?
This is becoming a bigger problem in our society today. Kids just don't know how to lose. Why? Parents this one is on you.
I grew up basically as an only child. My siblings were so much older than I was that we weren't close enough to "play" together. However, I had cousins and lots of them. As the younger ones, we always wanted to play with the older ones and do whatever they did.
Our favorite game to play was UNO. When I first began playing UNO I had absolutely no idea how to play, and that was okay. Most kids have to be introduced to games before they can learn how to play. We would play UNO every time we got together and every time, guess what? I lost. I lost the game so many times because I had no idea how to play. One day one of my cousins told me, "Once you learn how to play, you will get better. You will start to learn strategies and tricks and put in the effort." Keyword: effort. Most kids today don't understand what this word means. They see winning as instant gratification and that is it.
Eventually, after playing over and over again I finally got the hang of the game. Did I start winning right away? No. But I knew, I had to learn the strategies. The tricks. The effort. My cousins never told me "I'll let you win next time." or "Let's do a do-over." They never let me cheat, and if they caught me trying to, they would definitely call me out. Instead, when they lost to each other they would say, "You won this time. I'm going to try harder next time." or "Lucky you" Most importantly, regardless of what game we were playing everyone always finished the game. Again, emphasizing effort and not just winning.
Parents: you have to take the time to let your child learn the rules of the game, emphasize effort, and most importantly: LET THEM LOSE. Allowing your child to lose gives them a better gift than winning: The ability to cope with disappointment.
