A Little Competition Goes A Long Way

Perseverance, as you know by now, is not Anna's defining character quality.  Competition, however, may produce the determination Anna will need to accomplish certain childhood milestones.  Like, say, riding a bike.  

Molly did not inherit her parents' competitiveness.  Molly learns to do everything by practicing and never giving up.  Anna has not been inspired by her sister's example. What I believe she was inspired by was her younger cousin Allison, this weekend.

Grandma and Grandpa had been keeping Molly's old trike in their garage since we sold our house in Cincinnati.  Recently, Grandma has been teaching Allie how to ride it.  When we were there this weekend, Anna was aghast to discover Allie zipping around on her tricycle.  Anna was not good at riding it, like Allie was, and tears ensued.  I took her aside and explained that Allie had done lots of practicing, and that I was willing to take Anna out every day to practice, and then she too would get good at it. ( Of course, Allison was dismayed to discover that her tricycle was going home with Anna.)

  As soon as we unloaded the trike, Anna hopped on it and asked her sister to help her ride.  They practiced while I unloaded the car and threw in a load of laundry.  Today, when Anna and I went out to ride she insisted that we ride to the park.  Not the little "park" on our street - the one two streets over: a half-hour tricycle ride away. 

 

In a reversal of roles, I was the one saying, "I don't think we should do that.  Let's start slower..." and she was the one saying, "I can DO it!"  Lo and behold, she rode to the park, climbed around and played for at least half and hour, then rode all the way home.  She never complained once.  She never deemed herself a quitter.  She never stopped and refused to go on.  She chugged along the entire way.  When we got to our door, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "I TOLD you I could do it."  

Good old-fashioned competitiveness pulses through those little veins.  She'll be a killer Settlers of Catan player.