If you or your child is a Mets fan, please know that professionals are here to help as you attempt to navigate the team’s abysmal season.
“If your kid is learning what it is to be a Mets fan right now, they’re actually learning one of the most important [Dialectical Behavior Therapy] skills there is,” board certified DBT therapist Belinda Bellet explained in a video via Instagram on Friday, April 24.
The Mets snapped their brutal 12-game losing streak last Wednesday, April 22, but shortstop Francisco Lindor suffered an injury during the game. Bellet explained that it’s normal for fans to celebrate the long-awaited victory and simultaneously grieve the loss of a star player.
“In DBT, we call this the dialectic. Two opposite things can be true at the same time,” she continued. “You don’t have to pick one. Sit with your kid in both experiences. This is where grit is built.”
Bellet expanded in the caption, writing, “that’s what it feels like to love a team.”
“You can be relieved AND heartbroken. You can celebrate AND grieve,” she added. “You don’t have to pick one feeling and throw the other away. Don’t rush your kid out of the complicated feeling.”
What isn’t complicated is the Mets’ standing in the National League East. They enter Monday, April 27, at 9-19 overall, coming off a sweep at the hands of the also woeful Colorado Rockies.
Things have become so bad in Queens that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was even asked what he can do to improve the team’s fortunes. Mamdani, 34, was jokingly blamed for the team’s losing streak when their 12-game skid coincidentally began around the time he posed for photos with the team’s beloved mascots, Mr. and Mrs. Met.
“I’ll say there’s a lot of baseball left to be played and I am still keeping the faith, as I know that many Mets fans are across the city,” Mamdani told reporters during an April 12 press conference.
As for Bellet, she has also offered New Yorkers advice on how to talk to their kids about the New York Knicks. The NBA franchise is facing the Atlanta Hawks in a first-round playoff series and unexpectedly fell behind 2 games to 1 after Mikal Bridges missed what would have been a game-winning jumpshot in Game 3.
“If your kid is crying right now because Mikal Bridges missed that shot — don’t fix it. Don’t say ‘it’s just a game,’” she urged in another video posted Tuesday, April 21. “Their body is genuinely feeling it. The disappointment is real. The heartbreak is real. Validate it first.”
Bellet added that parents could then show their kids how, despite losing, the players walked off the court “with their head held high.”
“That is what resilience actually looks like,” she said.
Read the full article here
