Special

Children are the most amazing creatures on the planet in my opinion. From birth they are innocent and pure. Until they become tainted by reality, they bear the most inquisitive eyes and adorable demeanor. It is an incredible thing to watch a child grow from baby to toddler to child to adolescent and beyond.

They are special in every way possible.

I know that if ever I am fortunate enough to be a dad I will spoil my child to no end because there is no one I could ever love more.

I do have a point to make, no worries. My recent post entitled ""Your Baby Can Read"" criticized the use of any product that takes time away from your child, who deserves nothing less than your full attention every hour of the day (though obviously this isn't always possible). I now must criticize America in general.

While this doesn't apply to every single parent in the country, it does apply to a great many.

How many of you played a sport when you were younger? Those in generations before mine remember a time when you got a trophy and a pizza party if you won and you went home if you lost. Those in my generation will recall that trophies were handed out to every child on every time regardless of how well the child did or how well the team did. Why is this? Why do children who failed at their jobs get trophies and congratulations and parties and whatnot? I was on a soccer team for one season. The team was awful as a whole. I am not sports-minded at all, so I certainly didn't contribute. We lost every game but one with zero points to our name. The one we didn't lose we tied 0-0. At the end of the season I was rather disappointed in myself and my team, but being a realist I said c'est la vie and told myself I'd work harder next time. Despite our many consecutive losses, we all got engraved trophies to take home. Even then I asked why we were getting trophies.

It doesn't make sense to reward failure. I'm not saying to give children a hard time if they don't do well with something, but don't baby them either! They deserve the respect of knowing what's going on in reality. As much as I love the idea of child-innocence and the preservation of youth, I hate the fact that parents across the country are setting their children up to fail in the future. By giving them a prize for losing and assuring them that everyone is amazing in their own way, you demean them and create an unfortunate mentality that it's ok to fail because you'll get a prize anyway.

Yes, it is okay to fail. But that should motivate you to do better the next time, not provide you with the same rewards as succeeding. Please, shower your children with all the love and affection they desire. Give them your heart and soul. Make them feel how much you care and how special they really are to you. But don't create in them an everyone's-a-winner mentality because that will just lead to hardship later on in life.