This could be any parent's story while their children happen to participate in any kind of competition. For our family, summer competition just happens to involve showing dairy cattle. We were at a youth show. An activity packed three days with a few hundred 4-H youth and close to 700 project animals. The heat was intense, the mud was deep and the kids were all working hard.
This is a youth show. A place for the kids to show the project animals that they have raised and cared for over the previous year or more. They all begin their competitions with "Showmanship" classes. No matter which species they have, they are judged on the the condition of their animal; it's training; their cleaning and grooming and then how well they show the animal to it's best advantage. The competition can be fierce and the smallest details end up separating the top few showpersons.
My girls are old enough that they need little guidance or help from me. I am trying to step back and let them succeed or fail on their own. On the morning of the show, I took a stroll through the cattle tent to see how they were doing. I mentioned to my youngest, " I think you may want to clean your heifer's ears a little better." Her answer was, "I already did and I think they are fine." I could have told her to do it again, but I walked away and told her good luck.
I was very proud of her as I watched her showmanship class. It was obvious the judge had narrowed it down to a top few kids. He kept working them waiting for the littlest mistakes. He even had them switch animals to see how well they did with animals they did not own. The sweat was rolling down my daughter's face as she concentrated. In the final line-up, she stood second in a long line of youth. I was pleased for her. Then came the judges comments as the youth were awarded their ribbons and the pulled their animals out for the audience to view. I mentally said, "Yes!" as the judge mentioned that the detail that separated my daughter from the young man in first was that the inside of her animal's ears were not as clean. I was thankful that his comment reinforced my earlier comment.
So then after congratulating her ( with no "I told you so" s), I walked her back to the tent. I mentioned to my older daughter that the judge was really looking into the ears. She also said that her heifer's ears were clean enough. Another good luck to her.
Again, I watched my second child compete well in the ring. This time, you could see the judge had narrowed it down to the top three, who happened to be girls who were friends from the same county. My daughter ended up in third of a long line. Then again, the judges comments mentioned that my daughter should have cleaned farther down in her heifer's ears. A seemingly minor detail was what it took to separate the top three.
Afterwards, I knew that I could have "made" my girls clean their heifers ears more. However, the lesson was worth so much more than blue ribbons. Hopefully, they both learned that maybe their mother does have good advice at times. I hope this lesson stays with them through their teenage years as the obstacles they face include more than just summer cattle shows.
