Poor Loser Update

These kinds of observations can easily be interpreted as “throwing him under the bus”; but I make it only as an observation of where the boy is at from a developmental standpoint at 6. My best guess is he isn’t too different from other six years olds, although his responses have to be more to the extreme side of things. Which makes it fun.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago he played his grandfather in a game of checkers. He barely finished the game because about halfway through he determined that he was going to lose. The other day he played the Wife in a game of Battleship which was never completed because he decided he had no chance to win. Last night, I played him in a game of checkers as well as mancala and had to force him to finish the games. To his credit, he chose to play a second game of checkers and the Wife sat down to try and help him. But as soon as I captured the first piece he started whining. The Wife ended up finishing the game.

He took his loss in mancala particularly hard. Running away crying afterwards. Not just sniffling, but big heaving sobs with copious amounts of wailing. Like I said, good times.

At this point, we try not to make any bigger a deal out of it. He does that well enough himself. The Wife and I are both counting on the fact that he’ll mature a little and start trying to make the most of losing. I’ve noted before I was a notoriously bad loser (yes, “Blades of Steel”, dented walls, I remember, ya happy?) when I was younger. Hopefully, I can use my own experience to guide him through it.

I’ve also noted that the lass seems to take after him; although it’s difficult to say for sure whether she’s just following his (bad) example, or if she has the same problem. I’m leaning towards a mixture of the two, but my growing sense if that she’s basically the same as her brother.

Like I said, no real point or insights here. He clearly hates losing, as does his sister, and hasn’t gotten any better at handling it. Maybe when he’s 7…