To the Editor:
On May 19, I was able to attend the children’s parade as part of the festivities of the Creston Valley Blossom Festival. My son, who is four, was excited to ride down the road on his bike. I spent the days leading up to it regaling him with memories of mine from Blossom Festivals of my youth. We used to come in from Fernie every Blossom Festival to visit my grandparents. We would spend hours digging through Grandma’s “dress up box” to find the perfect costume, spend countless time using Grandma’s makeup to make our costumes complete.
Now, most kids like dressing up, but there was more to it than that. We wanted to win the prize. Yes, the prize! Every year they had a competition for best costume and best float — in the kid’s parade. (Insert audible gasp.) “What? But those poor children that didn’t win prizes. Whatever did they do?” I’ll tell you what we did — because I never did win a ribbon. We didn’t care! It was just fun to dress up and compete.
So, I had told my son that he might win a prize for his sheriff costume. Unbeknownst to me, there were no prizes! No competition. Nothing. Granted, I should have done my research first instead of hyping him up without finding out if there would be a competition, but that’s a different point. My son was excited to try and win a prize! So much so that he allowed me to draw a beard on him (he’s pretty particular these days about his looks). When we found out there were no ribbons to be won, he was pretty crushed.
However, my point is that there should be a competition. Two-thirds of the kids at the parade were not in costume. Why would they be? There was no incentive to be dressed up. It saddened me. When I asked the volunteer about it, she said, “Oh, we’ve never had a competition. We just want it to be fun for the kids.” I corrected her.
So I come to the question I want to pose: When did competition equal no fun? I can imagine a kid, when not placing in the competition, possibly crying because they had hoped they might win. What does a parent do? These moments are the opportunities to teach our children valuable lessons like, “You can try your hardest and still not be the best. Continue trying,” or, “Enjoy being part of the experience,” or —heaven forbid — “It’s OK to be mediocre!”
There were kids, even when I was a child, that didn’t participate. If your child truly can’t handle the competition, they don’t have to participate. They could just dress up for fun or not dress up if that suited them, too. I just get so frustrated that parents — yes, I repeat, parents — have babied their children to the point that committees are afraid to hold a competition for kids in case one or two of those kids’ parents formally complain that their precious baby didn’t win the prize. Boo hoo! That’s life.
What lesson are we teaching our children when we take away all form of competition? “Everybody wins when nobody loses”? I’m sorry, to me, “Nobody wins when nobody loses,” and it’s a crying shame.
Simone Wiebe
Creston