Lead
Your child loses a game, bursts into tears, and flips the board over. You feel a mixture of embarrassment, frustration, and low-grade worry: When will they be able to handle losing?
Intense reactions to winning and losing peak around ages four to five. That intensity is not a reflection of inadequate parenting or a character flaw in your child. It is the surface expression of a specific cognitive shift — the rapid development of social comparison — that happens at roughly this age in nearly all children. Understanding what is driving the reaction changes how you respond to it.