Is college rejection the worst experience your child has met so far in their lives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We try to provide a safe, comfortable childhood then boom! At the end of it all, the devastating rejection. Will it make them stronger and more resilient or bitter?

Please tell me this is sarcasm. Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We try to provide a safe, comfortable childhood then boom! At the end of it all, the devastating rejection. Will it make them stronger and more resilient or bitter?

Nope, not the worst experience for my kids. They had to deal with my cancer diagnosis (I'm their mom), and they had to deal with their beloved grandfather dying. College rejection didn't compare, though it was upsetting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We try to provide a safe, comfortable childhood then boom! At the end of it all, the devastating rejection. Will it make them stronger and more resilient or bitter?

If this is the worst thing to happen in their young lives, then they are VERY privileged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids grew up in NW DC where every extracurricular resource is overabundant

FIFY

Maybe. But the pool of competent/impressive kids is larger.

My friends who have kids elsewhere (in middle America) don't have to fight 50 kids for a single spot on the travel basketball team. Or 100 kids to make it to the
semifinals of the spelling bee. Or whatnot.

They have a reasonably smart and/or reasonably athletic kid and the kid rises to the top of the local cohort.

Here you can have a talented kid and it's like "take a number". I'm sure it's similar in other urban areas.

Anyway--my point is not that the area is competitive OR heavily resourced. It's that my kids have been REJECTED A LOT.
And their response to college rejections was like, "shrug. Okay. Moving on".

Getting cut from the elementary cross country team happens in public elementary schools in NW DC.
The kids have faced disappointment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We try to provide a safe, comfortable childhood then boom! At the end of it all, the devastating rejection. Will it make them stronger and more resilient or bitter?

Being bullied by the child who he thought was his best friend in 4th grade created a new view of the world.