Social Dilemma-Should You Always Let a Child Win At a Game?

Today's TRY Social Dilemma is about what it takes to be a good uncle or aunt for that matter. Here's the email: Hi Jaime. I'm writing because I want to know if I did something wrong. I mean I don't think I did but some people in my family think I'm kind of a jerk. Here's what happened. A few weeks ago my wife Tara and I were watching my brother's kids for the weekend. Trying to kill some time I took my eight year old niece bowling. Now I am no pro bowler so I wasn't in a position to teach, we were just having fun. Or so I thought. We bowled two games and when we were leaving, she was mad that she didn't win. I said "just try your best and keep at it, if you do it a lot, you'll get better". She seemed alright after that. When my brother and his wife got back from their weekend away, I told my brother about our bowling adventure and he was mad at me and was like, "you couldn't have let her win one game?!" It never occurred to me to let her win a game. Was I wrong? Am I a jerk for not letting her win? I felt good because I thought I taught her a valuable lesson. What do you think? Help me out here. Thanks so much ~ Geoffrey Personally I don't think Geoffrey did anything wrong. Eight years old is old enough to learn about trying harder to do something. Now I've let plenty of kids win at games in my day, but there does come a time when you have to win to teach them how not to be a sore loser, and to teach them the benefit of practicing if you want to get better. So I'm Team Geoffrey on this. What do you think. Let me know on the TRY Facebook page.