Thread: In my day.................

..............(cue tinkly music) ............ a School sports day wielded three trophies. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

If you weren't in the top three then you didn't get recognition - end of, train harder be better, or concentrate on the subjects you are good at!

There is a rule in life and it is survival of the fittest, it is something that we simply cannot get away from.

So articles such as As millions watch rejected teenagers break down in tears... Why I believe X Factor is guilty of child abuse | Mail Online grip my sh*t so to speak.

I will teach my kids that if they are good at something, then they have to work at it and strive to be the best. After all who wants to enter a race to find that everyone is the winner? I am all for applauding the taking part of course I am, but are we so afraid of upsetting our poor darling children that we miss out on teaching them the fundamental lessons of life, which are - it is hard, there are times when you are going to be faced with rejection, that you are going to fail, that in certain cases your efforts simply are not good enough?

Are we to shelter our kids from these lessons only to throw them to the proverbial wolves when they turn 18 or should we teach them through sport, competition and learning that in fact a negative can be turned into a positive, that we can come back stronger or just to accept that we have weaknesses as well as strengths?

So when a 16 year old blubs into her teddy bear because she is told that she is not going to get a quick fix to fame fortune and Gucci shoes, and that she is not ready for public critisism and extremely hard work, do I feel sorry for her? No, I want to shake her and say, "get a grip kid, take it on the chin, go away, practise, be better, work harder and try again, but have a back up plan just in case!"

For crying out loud we have boys and girls not much older, out in Afghanistan fighting for their country.

So I am in favour of bringing back the traditional sports day, where there is a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize!

Thoughts anyone?

Agree wholeheartedly.

I wonder how the x factor lot, young AND old would cope if they were actually given bad news!

You wonder just how much of it is put on for the cameras. How much has the show been edited to display the heartbreak. How many of them have been picked because they know it will make good television.

I agree with what you have said, and I don't agree with the article. But I do think many of the people (not just children) are built up on the x-factor only to make their fall that much more spectacular.

Totally agree. I wouldn't mind the kid on the x factor didn't even take it that badly, it's just been blown up by the press and the PC brigade. Life is full of tough situations where you have no choice but to man up and get on with it. Might as well be prepared for that from the off.

Agree!! I was always taught that a C is a fail- not because my parents were cruel but to push me to try harder. If I lost at something I was given a pat on the back for trying my hardest, then told that someone else was just better- the same with life really!

That's the thing, the taking part is great and should be applauded, as should every effort, but in childhood as in life there are winners and losers. That's not to say that the losers aren't winners at something else. But I feel that the PC brigade underestimate how hardy kids can be. Sure some will shrug off criticism whereas others who are more sensitive will take it badly, but that doesn't mean we should shield kids from failure, because at some point in each and every persons life they will be faced with failure, disappointment , devastation and loss. What truly sets us apart is how we deal with those facts of life!

To deprive kids of those lessons, and not equip them with the tools to deal with them when they are younger, now THAT's the cruelty!

I totally agree with all of this. The first time I ever failed in anything in life was when I got injured on my army selection, and it really knocked me for six. If I'd experienced failure earlier in life I think I'd have been able to deal with it a lot better without denting my confidence as much as it did. Although I don't think, for me anyway, that it was because I had been "nannied" by the PC crowd, but more because at school I always did pretty well academically without any real effort, and although pretty useless at athletics always loved competing in team games, so focussed on them instead. That, and the fact that I did a lot of music stuff meant that I never really knew what it was like to really struggle. I almost wish that I'd had a harder time at school, so that I could find setbacks now easier to deal with.