Competitiveness

Deanna got a Dance Mat for her birthday in October. Then, she got a different kind from her Aunt for Christmas. She loves them, but they occupy the TV and cover almost the entire floor of the Den. Nobody can do anything in the Den while the Dance Mats are in use.

Since the Olympics started, we've done very little on the Dance Mat. It's been put away so we can enjoy the Games in the evening. Yesterday afternoon, Daelyn begged to do some dancing. It's been rainy and cold and it seems he understands the importance of working off some of his energy in a constructive fashion inside. I was thrilled with the idea - much better than hitting me over the head with a light sabre or poking Dane with a wooden sword, or even running, shrieking through the house. So, we obtained Sissy's permission and plugged it in.

Daelyn has no concept of watching the arrows as they move up the grid and stepping on the correct arrow on the Mat at the appropriate time. He just jumps like a wild person all over it. Great exercise, terrible score.

Yesterday, he began his "dance", bouncing like a ping-pong ball in play. Deanna came in from the kitchen and sat on the loveseat to watch. Dane shouted instructions to deaf ears, then decided he needed to show Daelyn how it was done. He demonstrated on the Mat for a while, then got frustrated when Daelyn did his own thing, and decided he needed to teach pinball instead. After a while of being ignored, he gave up and went to do his homework.

Deanna sat quietly watching, until Daelyn, with all his crazy jumping around, managed a pretty high score on one of the dances. Deanna couldn't help herself. That competitiveness of hers got the better of her. Within minutes, she was on her feet (both, including the broken one) jumping around on the Dance Mat.

Don and I both hollered to her to stop. She pretended not to hear over the noise of the music. When the song finally ended, I said, "Deanna, what are you doing. Your foot's broken. You have NO BUSINESS on that Dance Mat."

"I'm being careful, Mom, and I'm not using my broken foot." Yeah!! Sure!! I knew what was happening here. Deanna couldn't stand that Daelyn's spastic movements had claimed a good score, and she just had to beat it, even with a broken foot.

Although I knew she would suffer for it later, there was no stopping her. We've fought the battle of competitiveness before and I choose these battles very carefully. I could have threatened her, the only thing that might have succeeded, but it just didn't make sense to me. She would suffer the consequences of her actions. So I let her dance.

About five minutes later, totally exhausted,she declared, "Okay, Mom. I'm done now." I glanced up to see her walking down the hallway to the kitchen.

Over her shoulder, she called back to me, "Oh, by the way, check out that score. And I did it with a broken foot."