Trashing Europe

Last updated on: March 15, 2011 at 2:21 am by Tara Edelschick

Trashing Europe 2011-03-15T02:21:12-06:00 Tara Edelschick

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Ezra proudly read the sign outside the gas station. “God Bless America!”

A few seconds further down the road, he added, “And God, throw Europe in the trash.”

Okay, we’ve got a problem. And it’s not Ezra’s rampant patriotism.

It’s that Ezra turns EVERYTHING into a competition, some kind of assessment of how he is faring compared to others. Today, when we were at the barber, he and Zach were contemplating buzz cuts. And Ezra turned to me and asked, “Who do you think will look better in a buzz cut?”

I tilted my head and smiled at him.

“C’mon, why won’t you ever answer that question?”

I don’t know if we did something terribly wrong, or if all second children, especially when they are so close in age, feel a deep, deep sense of being second best. But it breaks my heart.

And I wonder if homeschool isn’t intensifying that feeling. They sit side by side all day long, working on the same problems, running side by side on the track, remembering the same facts, and painting the same pictures. The truth is that there are many activities at which Ezra has an easier time, or enjoys more, than Zach. But Ezra seems to notice none of that. He focuses on where he finds himself short.

No matter how often we explain that everyone enjoys and has an easier time learning different things (and how often we point out what those things appear to be for Ezra), no matter how often we remind him that Zach is a year ahead of him in school, he still struggles with an intense case of rivalry.

If you have suggestions for us, please send them our way. If not for Ezra, then do it for Europe. You don’t want them thrown in the trash, do you?

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