Ms. Competitive

When it comes to competitiveness and Annabelle, to say "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is an understatement. She is the most competitive 3 year old I know. She is always racing Corgan AND us, and saying "I beat you!" Keith discovered that this competitive nature can be used to our advantage when we want Annabelle to eat her food faster or to go up the stairs faster. Saying "Uh-oh Annabelle, Corgan is going to finish his dinner before you" can light a fire under that girl... except when she absolutely doesn't want to eat (but "stubbornness" and "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is a whole other entry). Knowing that she already has this competitive nature in her blood, it worries me a bit to over use this because I don't want her to A. Always be in "I'm going to beat you" mode. (As I'm typing this, she is trying to convince me to play another Wii game with her and she just said "You better hurry 'cause I'm going to beat you.") or B. Feel like if she doesn't always win, then she's a failure.

Annabelle and I just played a few games of Wii Play, and of course I was helping her to win by pointing things out to her, so I lost. They showed the results at the end with Annabelle's Mii jumping for joy and mine hanging her head in shame. Annabelle said "Look mom, I beat you and made you cry!" (in an overly excited tone of voice). I made her stop playing so that I could explain to her that it wasn't nice to say something like that when you win, and that you should be happy for both players and be proud of everyone for doing their best. I told her she could say "I won, but you did very good too." So, in a very bland tone of voice, she said...

"You did very good too." Then pointed her finger at me and with a competitive voice said "But I beat you OUT Mommy!"

Sigh.

1 comment:

Angelle said...

I totally understand what you mean, but that was pretty amusing. :)