Lessons from losing

I was watching as an eliminated American Idol contestant in tears says," I don't understand how you could do great, do nothing wrong, and still get let down-I did everything I could"

Obviously the poor 16-year old kid (who was a very talented singer) never played sports. One of the lessons you learn in sports, over and over again, is that it is possible to work really hard, do your very best, be proud of your performance, yet end up disappointed in the result.

Not all of the valuable lessons are "rainbows and unicorns" and some of the toughest ones are the most valuable ones. Allowing young kids to lose and fail in sports prepares them to deal with disappointments in life later.

While counter-intuitive to most parents, protecting our kids from failure is robbing them of the opportunity to learn this lesson.