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Getting The Most Out Of Competing

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Get the Most Out Of Competing Most parents are heartbroken to see their child disappointed about a loss or a bad performance. It has become increasingly common to question the value of placing a child into a competitive situations. Parents in America are reluctant to subject their children to the stress and self-doubt associated with trying and failing to win. However, America’s society is filled with competition. So shielding a child from a competitive environment may leave them ill prepared to deal with the inevitable competition, and possible disappointment, they will experience when trying to get into the right school or get a job. Before going into the possible benefits of allowing children to compete it may be helpful to define the…show more content…
Experts fear this is contributing to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle for the youth of this country. Childhood obesity and health problems throughout life are already rampant in America, so less physical activity is not the answer. Instead limiting competition to an appropriate age and competitive level for children to gain physically, mentally, and emotionally is a better way. The problem with competition often lies with the parent instead of the child. According to Wendy Grolnick PhD., Professor of Psychology at Clark University: “Our children’s increasingly competitive lives lead us to greater heights and depths more extreme than those evoked by our own lives. Even though it’s only a question of getting into a certain kindergarten or making the traveling soccer team, we feel as though our child’s life is at stake” (27). The anxiety and fear parents feel for their child can lead to pushing the child for increasingly better performance or stressing winning over the joy of competing. This type of treatment not only takes the fun out of competition for a child, but may produce worse performance as the child’s interest wanes. To avoid this unpleasant situation try shifting the focus of competing. Instead of stressing anything other than a win as complete failure learn to celebrate improved personal
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