We spend weekend evenings often with a couple who we have been friends with for years. We have a son who is 7 and they have one who is 6. Their son likes to play car racing games on xbox and sometimes wants us or our son to play along against him. It he is losing the game, or not in first place, half way he will stop and restart the game, this happens until we lose interest in playing and will make an excuse and let him play the game on his own.
But also, when we play board games, simple board games that doesn’t require any strategy or anything, he always asks his parents if he won and his mum always says yes. Which I suppose is fine if it’s one of them who won and can give him the win, but sometimes it’s our son who wins so I think it’s unfair to do so then. Sometimes we (adults) will play a kareoke game competing against each other, and usually our sons just play their own games, but recently their son has been sitting watching us play, occasionally singing a few random words and at the end when the scores come up he will ask if he won, and his Mum will say yes! Again, I do disagree with is, especially if it wasn’t his Mum who won because surely he needs to learn that you need to at least participate in the game to win?!
I understand you need to let children win to boost their confidence, I’ve been through it myself with DS, however I do this by discreetly letting them win a few games by not playing as well as I would normally (board games / mario kart etc.). And I remember DS being such a sore loser at I around 4 years old, so we tried to encourage positive losing, as in us losing and saying “oh well that’s fine, lets play again, I still had fun….” Etc. because obviously you worry about them losing in school and then kicking up a fuss.
aibu to find this annoying? It’s making me to not want to spend time together if it involves children and games!