The most important skill to teach your child - Resilience
One common trait all successful adults have is resilience.
The ability to bounce back from disappointment is something we have the opportunity to teach our children every day.
As our kids constantly remind us, life isn't always fair. Is it a parent's role to constantly try to make life fair?
How do we balance the desire to shelter and protect our children with the need to teach them how to cope with life's disappointments?
The School A to Z website asked top teachers all over NSW for their tips for parents on developing resilience so children can succeed in the face of unexpected challenges. These tips include:
- Resilience doesn't come naturally to all kids - we need to specifically teach those skills.
- Always saving your child from failure doesn't give them the opportunity to learn better skills.
- To interact effectively with their peers, our kids need to develop resilience.
- Commend your child's strengths, and be positive about their abilities to improve their other skills.
- Self-esteem comes from conquering challenges, not from constant praise that everything we do is brilliant!
- Kids notice how well parents handle stress and challenges and then copy those behaviours.
- Extracurricular activities help develop social skills.
- Life isn't always fair. Teach your child how to accept that and adapt to challenging circumstances.
- Create opportunities for your child to talk about their problems - teens often open up more if you're doing some activity together.
Reference
Peel High School – News 7/3/14
