“I WIN”

When told we were having a son about 4 years ago, things go through your mind. The main one is: “I hope he’s healthy.”

When you son is here and you realize he is healthy, a whole other lists of thoughts go through your mind:
“I hope he is left handed.”
“I hope he can hit a curve ball.”
“I hope he is 6’6”
“I hope he can shoot a round of 64.”

And with all of those things there is the underlying hope that he is competitive, because without that, a lot of those sports-related hopes go away. Not only for sports, but also for life. I think you want your sons and/or daughters to be competitive so that they strive hard for what they want and try to get it.

Well there seems to be no shortage of competitive juices flowin in Owen.

One of the big problems we have is that he likes to “race” by beating you to a place. Up the stairs or down the stairs. Into the bathroom or into the bedroom. And the thing about racing is that Owen does NOT like to lose.

Now the funny part is, sometimes the big brother in me (not the father) takes over and I pull him back or even hold him back, just to see how he will react in defeat. Not too well most of the time. If you beat him, he hits the floor and starts a fake (or sometimes real) little fit. Now Renea and I have worked on trying to get him to shake hands, win or lose, so that he knows how to win and how to lose, but that still hasn’t stopped the “I WIN!” proclamation at the top of the stairs, or in the bathroom or wherever the finish line happens to be.

I guess you need to be careful what you ‘hope’ for. I have created a competitive monster and now we are trying to instill the proper way to win and to lose, which for a self-proclaimed sore loser most of my life, it is very hard to do.