Tonight Charles was reading Jack a book about a race. Jack piped up and said, 'Mom might win her race next week. I think she might.'
It was at that moment that Charles and I realized that we have not set proper expectations for next weekend. For the past ten-ish weeks I have been running and preparing for a half-marathon with my running buddy (a friend here at OH). Jack knows that he is going to get to go cheer me on next weekend. He is very excited about this. In fact, each time I get home from a run Charles has both boys chanting, 'Go Mommy. Go Mommy.' What we have not told Jack is that there are 15,000 people running this race and that Mommy is slow. These two facts alone mean I will not win the race.
Charles quickly told Jack that he didn't think Mommy would win the race next weekend. Jack asked why. And Charles diplomaticly told him that there would be lots of people and that the most important thing would be that Mommy did her best. He seemed decently content with that answer. Glad we got this one out of the way now and didn't have a four-year-old that was disappointed when some fast Kenyan flies past the finish line a few hours faster than his Mommy!
2 comments:
I think it is great that Jack is learning this lesson about competition before he gets to the age of competing in athletic events when "winning" is emphasized more than doing you best which is really the more important of the two things.
We have so enjoyed your blog lately - I just normally get interrupted before I can post. The kids absolutely oved the swagger wagon post - watched it numerous times. Regarding your race...I ran in a 5K several years ago for a pregnancy resource center (it was the Sat before mother's day) and the kids cheered me on. Justin counted to see what place I was in and I received my favorite mother's day card ever - It said on the front with a pic of me running the race (boo on Barry for taking it - it wasn't flattering) "You are the 157th fastest runner." And on the inside said "but the number one mom". Only Justin would have kept count up to the 157th place! BTW, you're obviousy running in a much larger race than I did!
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