How to help your child cope with rejection/disappointment
My daughter whom is a 7th grader got cast in the high school play. She was so excited. She got two roles: a small villain in act one and different small villain in act two. Act two was the bigger role. She’s been loving it, and super excited everyday when I pick her up. I’ve seen her videos, shes kinda great at getting up and belting out some evilness.
They’ve been practicing for months most every day for 2-3 hours after school, but act two has only been run through about 3 times. Spring break and some overnight field trips really cut into the practice schedule. Yesterday they ran act one, she came out pumped. Today they ran act two, but before they even started the director casually announced they were giving her act two part to another kid.
She had been running her lines several times a day all week last week as it was spring break and they didn’t have practice. Their first performance (not counting the dress rehearsal tomorrow) is in two days.
I picked her up from practice and she had tears rolling down her cheeks the whole way home. Her attitude wasn’t bad - she said she was sure the director had her reasons, and the other kid really wanted the part, but two days seems kind of a shock. They have 5 performances over the next four days, a totally exhausting schedule, and I’m worried she’s going to crash out and have trouble being in the play at all now that she feels like a disappointment. I’ve told her to stick with it, she just has to get to Sunday night and then if she never wants to do theater again she doesn’t have to.
What can I do to boost her confidence/help her feel better?