In recent months I have made the conscious choice to try to see the bright side of parenting. Most days I do a pretty good job of staying positive and counting my blessings. And, most days my boys give me plenty of reasons to do so. This weekend however, I couldn’t muster the strength to keep this positivity thing going. I live in a culture of competition. Literally, everything is a competition. My boys can turn the art of teeth brushing into a competitive sport. Combine this with the way they handle losing (badly is putting it extremely mildly) and it’s a lot to handle. And let’s just say Mad Dog’s win-at-all-costs mentality only seems to stoke my boys’ fire. When a family trivia game turned into an all-out meltdown, I was about ready to throw in the towel. In that moment of seeing Full Speed rage about not knowing an answer to a question, it made me realize finding something positive was going to be a real challenge for me.
If I’ve learned anything over the past years it’s that winners don’t quit. We may get knocked down, we may have our dreams of a quiet family game night dashed, but we always get back up, get that game board back out and throw down.
Maybe winning is everything.
Writes for all Mommies 