A friend of mine was alarmed when her son came home from Field Day with a “Participant” ribbon. She was concerned because he’s an athletic kid. Competitive. Usually at the top of his class academically and athletically. She was pretty sure, as he climbed into her car and she spied the ribbon, that he’d be sullen. Sulky. Disappointed.
How was it? she asked tentatively.
It was good! he answered.
How were the games?
Great! I won the relay, my team won the tug of war and Scotty and I came in third in the balloon toss.
But…your ribbon.
Oh, yeah. Everyone gets these. They don’t do first, second, third ones anymore.
__________
When I was a little girl, I had two favorite Sunday morning cartoons and they were on back to back. I loved Sunday mornings.
8 am
9 am
Today, my kids request to watch either a giant purple dinosaur whose title song is “I Love You, You Love Me” or an overly enthusiastic black man dressed in an Orange jumpsuit who plays with small stuffed animals and hosts “Dancey Dance Time.”
Not quite the same.
My favorite song was this one…
Sweet, isn’t it?
Well, now they’ve gone and wrecked it for all of us. Apparently it’s either bad for kids because little Jackie Paper eventually croaks or it’s bad because it’s actually about…well, this.
No more Peter, Paul & Mary? Rumor has it, I’m supposed to be playing Kidz Bop in my car. Really? Really? Have you actually heard Kidz Bop?
Want your kids to listen to this?
Or, this?
I don’t know about you. But, I think I’d rather my kids turn out to be 1st place winning, Tom & Jerry giggling, little Beatles listeners than merely participating, purple dinosaur watching, Kidz Boppers.
But, maybe that’s just me.
Confessions of a Serial Swooper 
We watch Looney Toons every Sunday night and eat popcorn and apples and cheese… It’s a great tradition that will probably make my kids better people…How can a coyote being blown up be anything but edifying?
[…] July of 2010, I posted a blog titled “Are We Raising Softies” (read it here) in which I brought up how it bothered me that we seem to have done away with the idea that WINNING […]