When Your Team Loses: Helping Kids Handle Disappointment
— 5 min read —
What the Blue Jays’ World Series Loss Can Teach Families and Kiddos About Resilience
If you live in Toronto (or anywhere in Canada), chances are you heard a few sighs echoing through living rooms this weekend. The Blue Jays didn’t take home the World Series — and for many little fans, that loss felt big.
Whether it’s their favourite team, a school competition, or a playground game, losing is often one of the first real emotional challenges kids face. And as parents, it’s not always easy to know what to say when the disappointment sets in.
But here’s the silver lining: these moments are incredible opportunities to help kids build resilience, perspective, and emotional regulation — the same core skills that help them move through life’s bigger ups and downs with confidence and compassion.
At wellbe, we believe every family moment (yes, even the tough ones) can be one of connection and curiosity.
Dr Tiffany Lewis, wellbe social worker and therapist, says:
“Processing disappointment is important because it will happen again– it’s a part of life. When we process disappointment, we allow our emotions to exist and to have a place of their own. If we aren’t allowing space for disappointment, we may be allowing negative emotions such as resentment or despair to step forward. There is strength and growth in processing disappointment. We learn valuable lessons, clarify our goals, and develop a more positive mindset!”
Here’s how to help your child handle the sting of a loss — and even grow from it.
1. Start With Empathy
Before trying to make it better, begin with emotional validation. Losing hurts — even if it’s “just a game.”
Reflect back on what they’re feeling:
“I see you’re really sad the Jays lost. That makes sense — it’s okay to be upset.”
Letting kids feel their emotions in a safe space teaches them that feelings aren’t problems to avoid — they’re messengers to listen to.
Dr Tiffany has this to say about validation
“Validation is such an important part of communication and emotion processing. When we validate, we are creating space for negative emotions to exist and to be okay. Validating emotions allows our kids to widen their window of tolerance for negative emotions while learning to articulate them. Validation helps us feel safe in our negative emotions.
One of the biggest takeaways for us and our kids (especially our boys) is that it’s okay to cry when we are feeling those emotions deeply. Shout out to our Blue Jays for displaying this so powerfully and humbly.”
2. Model Emotional Regulation
Your reaction matters. Kids are constantly learning how to process emotions by watching you.
If you show calm disappointment — instead of ranting about the refs or shutting down emotionally — you’re teaching emotional regulation in action.
“I’m disappointed, too, but I still loved cheering for them. They played hard.”
Dr Tiffany adds:
“We are our kiddos' first teachers. They are watching even when we don’t think they are. Modelling emotion regulation at home ensures that our children will apply those practices in other areas of their lives, such as school, with friends, and in their extracurricular activities. “
3. Help Them Reframe the Story
Shift their focus from the result to the effort, progress, or moments of joy. You could say:
“Winning is amazing, but cheering them on all season was fun, too. And wow, did they try hard — did you see last week’s comeback?”
Reframing helps kids understand that growth, effort, and showing up matter, even when the outcome isn’t what you hoped for.
Dr Tiffany’s take on reframing:
“Reframing is not the same as toxic positivity. A reframe allows us to focus on the “what else is happening here” part of the story. The goal of the reframe is to move away from feelings of anguish, upset, disappointment, and sadness once they have been processed. Remember, more than one thing can be true at the same time. We can be disappointed and proud. The Blue Jays didn’t win the World Series and they played a fantastic game of baseball the whole way through. There is opportunity for growth in the hard things– it’s how resilience is built!”
4. Connect the Lesson Back to Their World
Make it real for them. Ask:
“Have you ever lost at a game or not done as well as you hoped? What helped you feel better afterward?”
Dr Tiffany explains why this matters:
“We are helping our kiddos build their toolkits of resilience by teaching them how to ask themselves, ‘What did I do the last time I felt this way?’ They will then be able to pull from their past experiences in processing their emotions and use them in the present moment and going forward. Each time our kiddos effectively connect to their emotions and navigate a challenging situation with grace and humility, it builds their sense of pride, confidence, and personal value, which makes them more likely to handle situations similarly in the future.”
5. Bring in Hope (and Some Fun)
Losing hurts. But there’s always a next inning — in sports and in life.
“The Jays will be back next season. And we’ll cheer again. That's the cool thing about life — we always get another at-bat.”
A playful reminder like this not only interrupts the focus on losing, it also teaches optimism and perspective — two powerful tools for emotional resilience.
The Parenting Takeaway
Losing — whether it’s a ball game or a battle over bedtime — is part of being human. But it’s also how we learn, build grit, and become more ourselves.
When we sit with kids in those losses — without fixing, rushing, or brushing things off — we teach them that hard moments are safe to feel… and safe to move through.
At wellbe, we love working with families through these big emotional experiences. Our team of child and youth therapists, social workers, and family practitioners is here to help every kid — and every parent — build the tools to thrive.
** “ Our nervous system is at the centre of our mental and physical wellbeing. When our nervous system is regulated, we can make more informed choices, think and speak with clarity, and keep both our gut and heart processing at a healthy, rested pace. We function more effectively when we are well-regulated and we are able to better understand our emotions and how to process them. Our nervous system also benefits from feeling the emotions– we need to cry, we need to laugh, we need the deep sigh that comes with both pain and relief. There are so many ways we can support our nervous system and build our emotion regulation skills, and we can do it as a family.”
Want to learn more about supporting emotional regulation or how therapy can help kids navigate disappointment in healthier ways?
Feel free to reach out — we’d love to support your family.
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