No prize for coming second – really?

03/08/11: No prize for coming second – really? Phew, I’ve just done the working Mother ‘daily impossible’ and managed to get to sports day just at the right time to see Oliver, aged 10 run his race. I have 20 mins to spare and have arrived just in time. He is being unusually ‘çool’ and pretending not to see me. Delivery of Tim Tams, drinks and snakes have soon changed his tune. True to his Mothers form he’s run his 100 metres and come 2nd last. I’ve acted suitably proud – and invited him to enter every race because you get a point for entering. Only 3 points for winning! He can still 'win' in some ways for his house. It was a trick my streetwise eldest daughter Charlotte came up with when she realised she just wasn’t going to win a race. “Oh well “ she said, “I’ll enter everything and we get a housepoint for just entering”. She did as well as she could and got 3rd place a couple of times. I loved her initiative. My other daughter Georgina of course sailed like a gazelle across the finishing line, she can afford to pick her race!

Some of us play to win, some of us play to contribute. Some of us just keep going, no matter what, and like the tortoise and the hare story, just get there by sheer tenacity. Tenacity and a ‘no bull’ attitude works well for me and my 10 year old!

PS Jelly beans safely delivered.

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