The school district had a "Fun Run" for all elementary school kids to participate in. I entered Emma because she loves running and thought it would be a good experience. When she came home from school the day of the race, she excitedly changed into her clothes and started doing warm-up exercises. We hurried to get there by the start time of 3:30. It turned out to be a 1 mile run. Parents were invited to run with their kids to help them along if need be, but I wasn't able to run with her because I had the three other girls with me.
To summarize: Emma stuck with it the whole way. She placed 95th officially among the girls, though actually a few places earlier than that since she stopped to talk to me before keeping her place in line to turn in her name id. The first thing she said to me after finishing was, "That was the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life" amidst crying because her side hurt so bad. She continued, "I thought it was going to be fun, but it wasn't. It was hard." Now she doesn't want to do it next year.
Sigh. How do you encourage your kids to want to push themselves to get better at something that they enjoy? Is it just having the luck of finding what it is they absolutely love, or do you not let them give up at something they enjoy and are good at but don't love enough to do it when it's hard work?
1 comment:
Leanne, such great questions. I think that's every parent's worry.
Looking back to my childhood, I remember getting trampled by the entire soccer field. Literally. I hurt, I wanted to quick, but my dad played tough love on me. He made me go back out there, and soccer went on to become my favorite sport. I played in HS, and intra-murals at BYU. As much as I resented it (and him) at the time, I can't tell you how glad I am that he made me do something I really didn't want to do. It's affected my whole life!
Good luck finding the best solution for Emma! :)
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