Preparing our kids to face the world around them is vital part of parenting. We always teach them how to succeed but the most important thing is teaching them how handle difficulties. If we don’t prepare them for failures it leads to meltdowns later in their life (even for petty issues).
The younger they start learning to tolerate failure the better they prepare for life.
An infant falls down many times before he learns walking that makes him confident. What if we help holding him every time he tries to walk? He will never walk on his own and expect the same support later in his life too. Is it really possible to us to be with him always?
Answer is NO.
Many younger kids get frustrated for smaller failures like losing a game or a competition.
How to teach kids to be tolerant to failure:
Use below phrase when your kids get disappointed:
“I see you’re really disappointed, I know you really wanted to do better.”
Tell them that you as an adult no exception to failures. Share your recent experience and how did you overcome your disappointment.
Make your child understand that it’s ok to face failures sometimes but we need to be resilient.
Their Failure – Your Opportunity:
If your child is disappointed over something use that situation as an opportunity to teach problem solving skills. Tell them it’s ok. But what do you learn from the failure is important and what you have to do not to repeat the same thing in future.
It’s a 3 step process:
Accepting the situation
Be tolerant to disappointment
Thinking what next?
It’s not about only sports, disappointment would be any type, sometimes we might not be the reason for that, but we have to accept and cope up with that. Learning to face disappointment is a life-skill. Parents play a crucial role to teach kids how to be tolerant and cope up. It is painful to face a failure but kids will only succeed when they learn how to handle it.
Happy Parenting!