Son very competitive, he's only in Reception

[MsGus]

My son who will soon be 5, is ridiculously competitive. He wants to ein everything. When he loses, he cries like the worse posdible thing has happened to him. He will even stop the game or competition if he realises he is about to lose. I want him to learn that losing is part of life and it is a matter of dusting yourself up and trying harder next time. I don't want him to be discouraged by losing when it happens in life.

This is a boy who genuinely thinks he can run faster than Usain Bolt, swim faster than Michael Phelps, etc.

Anyone else have a child who is extremely competitive? How do you deal with this?

We taught our sore loser to compete against himself. Never let him win and when racing in the park of course mum is faster. Take his time though and point out he's faster than he was last week.

Dd would attempt to stop games at this age if she thought she wouldn't win....She's growing out of this sore loser stage now thank goodness.

A friend's son is like this. Consequently we feel our DD can't have a 'traditional' party with party games and the like: we'd have to invite him, but we've seen him behave so appallingly at other similar events that we can't face him ruining her party.

I have a DS like this too - same age also. Getting slightly better at it though. We are trying lots of different games to show how you win some, you lose some and that people have lots of different skills and some games are just pure chance (after a particularly monster of a strop following snakes and ladders game).

I want to show him the footage of the Brownlee brothers, where one helps the other across the line, but the message might be lost on him.

That said, I don't think eradicating all elements of competition is a good idea either, as life is the survival of the fittest.

Almost all 3 year olds genuinely believe they are as gifted as Picasso, faster than Usain Bolt and more beautiful than Giselle Bundchen. At 5, quite a few still do. By age 8, they have all been thoroughly disillusioned and know exactly where they stand. I think school does have that effect. It's a difficult thing to come to terms with.

Thanks for the helpful advice and understanding. I'll check out the books and try the tips. All the best.