No such thing as a Participation Award

One of the things I love about playing games with my kids is the opportunity to impart some life lessons. There are rules to follow, turns to take and wait for, and of course the opportunity to win...or lose. My children participate in various sports throughout the year. During the summer they join city swim team. Each week, the various teams in the city meet for a swim meet that pits kids against one another based on age. Usually there are about 8-10 swimmers per heat, and they all race to touch the wall first. In years past, each child would get a ribbon based on the place they got in the race. First got blue, second got red... all the way to last place which was usually a shade of brown. Some of my kids really wanted that blue ribbon, while others preferred different colors and didn't care what place it represented. Of course, sometimes disappointment would occur when one of my kiddos didn't swim very well (or just plain got beat), and tears would flow. While losing could be difficult, it opened the doorway for them to learn from their mistakes and work to improve. Fast forward to today, and suddenly the ribbons have changed to just simply state "Participation Award". The theory is that children should be rewarded for just showing up, and shouldn't feel like they have anything to prove or are being compared to anyone else. Um, hello, what on earth is happening! What are we teaching our kiddos... have you ever shown up to a job and said "Hi, I'm just here for the participation paycheck just for being here. I'm not going to try and improve and do my best, because every body gets a prize.. right?" Board games are excellent for kids because from a young age they can learn how to try hard, do their best, be gracious in winning, and learn something from losing... all in the safe environment of home! So many creative games have come out that teach kids how to think outside the box, develop problem solving skills, and most involve some sort of math (even if it is just keeping score). Its a wonderful thing to see a group of kids playing together...and not one of them receives a participation award!