Page 32 - SB-Polly Perfect

The story ends with a realistic assessment by one of Cosmos’ cousins, “Polly has been needing to be perfect in everything and for her life to be perfect for a long time, I hope she does learn that her thinking is unrealistic and is making her unhappy, but I’m not willing to bet any bananas on it.”
Individuals with a Polly Perfect style of thinking have a great deal of difficulty changing. They see their problems as being caused by others. They see any lessening of their insistence that things should go their way as an invitation to “failure.”
The Polly Perfects of the world can be very productive and even successful. When things are going their way, “as they should,” they can be pleasant and amusing. But life does not present us with consistency and there will always be problems. That is the nature of reality. Thus the Polly Perfects of the world are usually anxious, frequent unhappy and prone to be a difficult co-worker, boss or family member. The central message is; you can do your best, you can be successful, you can accomplish much and all of this can be done without the Polly Perfect irrational beliefs.
You want to use this story to help the child understand that demanding to always win (be praised or admired) is not realistic.
In our attempts to not “injure their self-esteem”, we encourage this typical irrational thinking of children. The thinking of Polly propelled her into significant accomplishments but at the cost of not being a very nice individual. They are the individual who can not loose gracefully and who is quick to blame others (in a very ugly manner).
We always want children to do their best but let their honest effort be the measure of success and sometimes that does not mean winning a “blue ribbon.”
29