Short one about not giving up.

As my son is almost 4 years old, more and more he is showing interest in different sports. As he is trying new things I can see that sometimes he cannot pass the frustration of not being good at something.

Recently his dad installed a net in our garden and introduced him to badminton - when my son would just get angry and throw the racket across the garden and sit on the side sad that he can't play like daddy, and i couldn't figure out how to explain to him that sometimes he will miss and sometimes he will shoot this shuttlecock... That's how it is, and simple accepting his feelings and giving him empathy was not working here...

On Sunday when we were in the park eating ice cream on the blanket, there were 3 friends casually playing cricket. The player that was meant to hit the ball, missed it sometimes but, he was not throwing the bat around and giving up - I saw my son watching them so I thought this is my chance!

-Oh look he missed the ball, it must be difficult for him but he's not giving up, hmm interesting - I've said.

-And he is big like daddy - he said

-Exacly, and you know why he is not throwing bat and giving up for missing the ball?

-Why? - he looked at me intrigued.

-Because he knows he can try again, as many times as he wants, and missed ball shouldn't be a reason for not enjoying the game with friends.

The moral of this story is not to hide emotions when we are going through difficult times or a failure, or to supress frustration of being bad at someting new, not at all, but simply to recognise that we can feel those feelings and try again.

Because we know, we can always try again - and while we play we may just have fun, no matter the results.

My son still gets frustrated from time to time, that's okey - but every time I remind him of the players in the park because I was like that too, not wanting to try anything new scared I will suck at it (same with this blog) but now I focus on the good time I have and always picking this bat and trying again, so I want him to know it before I did - 30 years old, tired of my own limitations.

Hope this short post will give you some inspiration and I am wishing you the best rest of the week. 🎉