Losers lose!

Seems like a real slap in the face to his kids.

 

I definitely did a double take.

 

For the record, he ain't me. Just a fellow traveler and deep thinker.

 

His kids are just trying to break down a locked door and be productive members of society.

 

I get (and agree with to an extent) the premise that we generally don't allow our kids to experience failure often enough, but I usually detest the idiots who are yelling the loudest about it to demonstrate how tough they are and that practically everyone around them in their (league, town) is a pussy who expects to be handed things in life. James Harrison included.

 

cran, to that point, I thought this was a good comment from Reacher's link.

"Not only do participation trophies make kids feel good (which, as pointed out, is a good thing) but it teaches kids there’s a ton of value in actually seeing something through to the end. It’s incredibly difficult to go out and do something you’re terrible, or even average, at but keep forging on and see it through to completion. In fact, of all the life skills that’s one of the most important one for kids to learn.

"If you only give reinforcement for winning, isn’t the lesson: It’s not worth doing anything you can’t win? Isn’t that a pretty terrible life lesson, one that sets kids up to quit what they’re doing when they aren’t excelling?"

 

Yep. Depends on age, ability and activity. Winning and losing are the easy lessons of competition. Things like working together, persevering, training, fair play and going outside your comfort zone are also positive results that can and should be rewarded.

 

Most of the people I hear bitching about the "everyone gets a trophy" bit are those who perceive their kids as being relatively exceptional (at whatever's being talked about). So when they launch into this line of bullshit, what I hear is someone saying "If everyone gets a trophy, my little snowflake won't get the recognition he/she deserves for being so special."

And what I imagine myself saying is, "Get. The. Fuck. Over. Your. Self."

 

Being on the table team is its own intrinsic reward, or should be. If you (more correctly the parents) want something to remember it by, frame the jersey and hang it up.

 

If Harrison was a sports editor, he'd absolutely be costing some kids scholarships by not doing "write ups" on them.

 

MMBM: James Harrison wants attention just for being a decent parent, like a typical Millennial

"When you think about it, children are just a participation trophy for having sex."

 

I think when kids get to a certain age, they know which trophies are meaningful. My son, now 18, got a participation medal each year he played baseball, and they sit in a drawer, but he proudly displays the academic trophies and medals he's received because he knows he earned those through hard work, not just mom and dad driving him to practices and games.