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Competition

I’m starting to see that my daughter is turning out to be quite competitive. In fact we were already using this trait to get her to do stuff we wanted, without realizing what a big part of her personality this is.

There are two competitions she has early in the morning, before going to school! One is with her mother. I am the judge, and I decide who’s brushed their teeth better. Almost everyday I decide that its my daughter, but on some days I call it a draw. Mainly because I like to flex my power as a judge. The other competition, for which a judge is not required, is with me. Whoever gets ready the fastest wins. I think I’ve won twice in the last three months.

I’m sure its a matter of time before she figures this out, but right now, she’s very motivated to brush her teeth well and get ready fast. Maybe I’m shooting myself in the foot by typing out all of this.

However, after all of this ‘gamification’ being put in practice, I only began to realize the importance of competition for her, when we started a family karaoke competition one night. We don’t even have a karaoke set, we just played karaoke versions of songs we like on YouTube and improvised with a plastic mike that does nothing.

You should have seen the look in her eyes and all that focus! I have seen some of the best ‘America’s got talent’ contestants be less focused than she was. Olympic athletes seem more distracted than she was on that night. She was in it to win it!

Being type B, I never imagined I’d have a type A daughter, but I’m sure its a useful thing to be. Maybe as a kid I was more competitive? I do remember feeling bad about never being able to beat my dad in tennis (not until I was embarrassingly old).

Baby, If you ever get stressed out though, try and think of your old man and take some time to breathe.

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About the Blog

I became a father on 17th April 2010. Even though I was prepared for being a dad, I was not the least bit prepared for what it meant to be a dad. This blog is about some of the pleasing, joyful, horrid, wonderful and annoying realisations that I've had as a parent of a beautiful baby girl.

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