I for one believe that competition is a good thing and that childhood games offer more than a good time. I feel that many of these games teach life lessons, such as how to deal with disappointment. They also teach children to compete, or in other words, to work harder than others do in order to succeed.
One competitive game is musical chairs. The object is simple; you want to be one of the people seated in a chair when the music stops. The game begins with seats that number one less than the number of people playing. Every other chair faces the opposite direction. Children walk around the line of chairs in a circle, with music playing in the background. When the music stops, everyone rushes for a seat. Whoever is left without a chair is out of the game. As each person leaves the game, another chair is removed, until there is only one child left. He or she is the winner.
Today we are often counseled that games that are competitive in nature are not the best ones for children. Such a game might leave a child who has no chair with hurt feelings.
Today, there are no winners, because everyone is treated the same way. Competition has gone out of style in our public school systems. Even the losing team now receives a trophy. What motivation does the other team have for working harder or doing better, if there is no distinction?
My personal opinion, as a mother of four, a substitute teacher, and a former preschool aide, is that children are quite resilient. I also believe that they need to compete to learn how to deal with such minor disappointments as losing a simple game in order to learn how to deal with real issues later in life. Children will recover from being the last one standing and they need to learn how to lose with grace and cope with disappointment. These are important aspects of their maturity and well-being.
While I am not a mental health professional, I’d venture to say that children will survive a game of Musical Chairs. In fact, I believe they will be stronger for having learned that life isn’t always fair and things don’t always go your way.