How do I teach my kids to deal with change? Failure is the worst part of human life, and it gets even worse if kids are involved. If you haven’t taught them already, your first step should be to figure out how to navigate how real life is very much different from their expectations. The second thing you should teach your children from a very tender age is how to deal with failure. Here are a few ways to make the topic of failure clearer and easier for your kids.
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Teach Them to Embrace Failure
Make it a habit to remind your little ones that nobody wins all the time. This idea of trophies for everybody that participates in a contest is not a reality. If you watch championship games or the Olympics, you already know that everybody is not on the podium; only the winners are, and that’s just okay because nature doesn’t gauge your success based on whether or not you win. Teach your children the reality that life has its ups and downs. Make them understand that we will have performance failures, we stumble, we are going to disappoint a friend, we will miss in a team, and we are going to face more chaotic failures in life. Simply put, don’t help them prevent failures but know how to navigate them.
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Instill a Growth Mindset In Them
After your kids have learned that failure is part of life and just okay, now help them focus on growth. Having a positive mindset is something everyone can learn from childhood. This way, they will learn how to overcome obstacles as soon as they come up. Since failure may arise from, among other things, trying to learn a new skill, a growth mindset will keep your kids on course, fully armed with determination and persistence. Therefore, by changing how your kids think about failure, you effectively change how they view it.
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Don’t Blame Them
The worst mistake you can make under the sun is to blame your kids for all their failures. The best thing to do is to make them understand that some things they have control over may happen, and any loss or win is for them. Celebrate their failures the same way you would if they won. Of course, encourage them to soar higher in their next endeavor because wins are sweeter than failures.
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Teach Them to Fail
Recall the adage “experience is the best teacher”? Well, “failure is the best teacher” would be better because it is often through failing that we develop analytical thinking and problem-solving skills. When your kids experience adversity, how their brains work changes drastically.
You may not believe it but the easiest way to have your kids keep failing is to prevent them from falling. On the other side, letting them experience small failures equips them with skills to manage and prevent bigger ones in the future. That said, give your little one some space to fail and they will become strong enough to face any problem. After all, failure is not fatal!
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Challenge Them
Just like adults, kids become stronger every time they try. Things get easier when they “fail forward” or simply learn from their failures and put the lessons learned into practice. As a parent, aim to help them get excited at trying to improve after failure. Additionally, make them understand that they are not failures; don’t allow them to enter that comfort zone!
Prepare Your Kids for Unmet Expectations
While your little ones are young, you must come up with an intentional approach to help them navigate failure. The ways above, when sustained, will help them embrace failure and work towards achieving wins even when it seems like something beyond their reach.
