Tiffany has been encouraging our nine year old granddaughter, KC to enjoy swimming with her friends. Both Tiffany and her brother were excellent swimmers in high school and did well in their swim meets. What Tiffany especially enjoyed was the camaraderie with her teammates who supported each other and became good friends throughout high school. And yes, there was also the wonderful feeling of accomplishment when she bettered her times.
When we were in Illinois, we watched KC swim. She brought back memories of Tiffany. Her strokes were strong, elegant and efficient. It made us smile to watch her. Still, KC did not want to race because she was afraid of losing.
Tiffany wanted her to race so that she could learn how to lose and win graciously and accept that life would be full of both experiences.
A beginners race was being held where there would be four swimmers per race and each child would get a ribbon. KC agreed to take part.
My daughter and son-in-law watched her swim and were proud of the effort she put into each race. She won a first place blue ribbon in free style and then a third place in the back stroke. When it came time for the breast stroke which is her strongest stroke, just like her mother, she was doing very well and then seemed to slow down to look at the other swimmers. She came in third.
KC was still very happy. Her parents were elated that she'd enjoyed the experience. KC proudly held up the ribbons so they could text a photo to us.
On the way home, Tif asked KC why she slowed down during her breast stroke. Apparently, KC had gotten a white ribbon and a blue ribbon and she wanted a second place red ribbon. She therefore slowed down to see where the other swimmers were so she wouldn't come in first since she already had a blue ribbon. Unfortunately, she miscalculated and came in third.
Both Tiffany and my son-in-law were startled at first and then burst out laughing. When they told us the story, we also got a good chuckle and I got a blog post out of it too.
I love it! I'm very proud of my granddaughter. I hope she'll find swimming as much fun as her mother and uncle did.
When we were in Illinois, we watched KC swim. She brought back memories of Tiffany. Her strokes were strong, elegant and efficient. It made us smile to watch her. Still, KC did not want to race because she was afraid of losing.
Tiffany wanted her to race so that she could learn how to lose and win graciously and accept that life would be full of both experiences.
A beginners race was being held where there would be four swimmers per race and each child would get a ribbon. KC agreed to take part.
KC was still very happy. Her parents were elated that she'd enjoyed the experience. KC proudly held up the ribbons so they could text a photo to us.
On the way home, Tif asked KC why she slowed down during her breast stroke. Apparently, KC had gotten a white ribbon and a blue ribbon and she wanted a second place red ribbon. She therefore slowed down to see where the other swimmers were so she wouldn't come in first since she already had a blue ribbon. Unfortunately, she miscalculated and came in third.
Both Tiffany and my son-in-law were startled at first and then burst out laughing. When they told us the story, we also got a good chuckle and I got a blog post out of it too.
I love it! I'm very proud of my granddaughter. I hope she'll find swimming as much fun as her mother and uncle did.
She is not competitive but a peacemaker, I think! What a wonderful story, Kay, and I am proud of her, too! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet young lady. She will do very well in life!
ReplyDeleteSwimming will add to every aspect of her life. I'm so glad she got over her fear of losing and had fun. Love the post.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to KC, she is a good swimmer!
ReplyDeletecute story and good ideas for competing...
ReplyDeleteMy daughter keeps inviting me and David to watch their kids play soccer. She said that Julia always manages to score a goal in every game, so I guess we will take our video camera and try to record the game one of these days. Who knows, I might be able to blog about it, too.
ReplyDeleteVery sweet girl
ReplyDeleteThat is precious. i really like her sense of symmetry and order!
ReplyDeleteThat's funny! When my girls were young I belonged to a spinners and weavers guild and we participated in contests wherein some of the team spun wool yarn that the weaver of the team wove into a shawl. There are three spinners for one weaver. One year we were one spinner short on our team, which was not a problem for output, but against the rules. I put my youngest daughter in front of a spinning wheel and forced her to learn to spin, so she could be a "ringer" and satisfy the judges. She simply would not try. I walked away, telling her she could just always be preparing her fiber when a judge looked, but she had to be there. Come the day, not only was she there, she spun beautiful yarn. Our team took a blue ribbon. Afterwards I told her how proud and pleased I was and offered to have her learn more about spinning. "No thanks, Mom. I got a blue ribbon; that's all I wanted."
ReplyDeleteSometimes we just don't see what's in their little heads.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing story :) I love how Tif wanted her daughter to get experienced in life's challenges of winning and losing....and then her daughter actually managed to deal with it in such a smart and unexpected way. She didn't care about winning. She cared about the fun and the colors of the ribbons. KC sounds like an amazing girl to me. What a precious story. Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful and very merry Christmas week :)
Lots of hugs,
Beate
Such a cute story! Nice that KC's parents don't push her and that she is allowed her own sense of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteI never got the hang of swimmming, I could never float. If I got tired, I sunk.
ReplyDeleteLots to learn here, but especially that kids see competition differently than adults. It's not who wins, it's having pretty colors. (And not losing)
ReplyDeleteA wonderful story...And how wise Tiffany is. I love that Casey wanted each ribbon to be a different color. And I hope she will have a lifetime of enjoying swimming. I still love to swim though I never did it competitively. And I'm in my 70s now.
ReplyDeleteHaha, that girl's got it all figured out!
ReplyDelete