Ep 31 My 9 year old says the coach has a favorite. now what?

https://heysammi.com/  what do you say when your child notices the coach has a favorite? a mom in atlanta wrote to me because her 9 year old announced it at bedtime: coach has a favorite, and it's not me. in this episode i start with the part that stings. she's probably right. nine year olds are world class at reading rooms, and telling her the coach treats everyone the same isn't comfort, it's telling a kid her eyes are broken. so i walk through the honest version: validating what she sees, the truth about how people click, and the two-list trick that keeps a kid from going cynical. list one is what she can't control, who gets the warm voice. list two is what she can, effort, attitude, skills, coachability. kids who pour everything into list two have a way of becoming impossible to ignore. i also cover the parent homework: telling garden-variety favoritism apart from actual mistreatment, why you shouldn't audit every practice through this lens forever, and the answer for when she asks why. sometimes there's no why, honey. plus the flip side nobody plans for: teaching her what to do the season she becomes the favorite herself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices