Thursday, July 15, 2010

Win, lose or draw?

beating up "Ryan"

I know the schools of thought on this: Let them win and it gives them a taste of success and the incentive to keep playing. OR ... Let them win and you undermine their self determination and bolster their sense of entitlement.

I suppose I let Ittybit win a lot when she was little. I'd keep the game close, or as close as possible, until the finish. I didn't really think of it as "letting her win" so much as simply putting handicaps on my advantage.

What I've shied away from are the celebrations of victory and the disappointed wailings of defeat. I always hated those particular points of competition. Win or lose, we'd just play another game.

So? Do you let them win?

4 comments:

Carl said...

Enjoy letting them win while you can -- now that my elder daughter can sometimes beat me at Jeopardy, I'm ready to crawl into the nursing home and wait for it all to end.

Kcoz said...

Yes I do, like you I just consider it a handicap and I always keep it close, especially when I choose to win. This removes the blow-out scenario and encourages them to try again…after all, they are learning. Soon the handicap becomes less and less and you will be pressed to use all your skills so you will not be blown-out yourself.

Later…

Anonymous said...

If we are playing more than one game, I make sure we all win at least once. But if someone starts being a poor loser, or poor winner, we stop playing(or at least that person does.)

kblanz said...

I actually try not to lose.