Competitive Spirit

We all tend to have a little bit of a competitive spirit, don't we?

One of the things that I would say I have a limited amount of, is a competitive spirit. I don't know why, but it was never something I was super interested in, at least in the physical world. I was pretty competitive with video games which was good and bad I guess, but that seemed like it was my only outlet.

Where things are getting noticeable, is that my son is incredibly competitive. He seems to be constantly competing with me and he actually gets annoyed with me that I don't share his competitive desire haha.

One of the things that I've had to do is intentionally let him win at the things we are playing. I think it's a bit of a natural thing for a son to be competitive with his father, and try to best him. It sure seems like he's going to be doing that for the next decade or so, until he gets to a point where his hormones and things level off, and he matures a bit to where many adults get to, shifting to appreciation and love for their parents.

The human instincts are certainly weird and fascinating. These competitive drives I believe are driven by testosterone, and when he wins, he gets a little bit of a testosterone boost. Those are for sure things to keep in mind as he gets older, because those can be both great as well as challenging. We all know what happens when we boys get loads of testosterone! They tend to get a little aggressive lol.

I was playing soccer with the little man earlier, and we had a great time. What was funny is that he was getting annoyed that I wasn't playing hard and was just focusing on the repetition of the kicks and the aim instead of trying to slam the ball as fast and far as I could, as he was trying to do. It's for sure a delicate balance, trying to foster interest and practice in a thing and trying to also be competitive.

I, at one point, had to tell him that it's more important for me to play with him and practice with him than it is for me to actually try to play because it's better for him to focus on practicing. He didn't think of it that way of course, but I think he was just in one of those really competitive mindsets.

The balancing act for me is trying to figure out how to push him a little hard in the things we are doing, such as soccer, but at the same time not give it my effort and he will lose, causing frustration on his part and ends up turning into emotions because he lost to me. He handles losing things to his friends and other kids pretty well, which I am incredibly proud of him for that, but he doesn't take losing something to his dad very well at all haha. I sometimes would think it should be the opposite! Oh well, I think that's the price one has to pay to be a dad!

What about you, do you have a very competitive spirit? What do you think I should do with the sports stuff with my son? Let me know in the comments!