Success is not final. Failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill
The ability to work through challenges and cope with stress is inherent in every child. Having resilience means being able to bounce back from stress, failure, challenges, or trauma. It is a skill that kids develop as they grow, not something they have or don’t have.
Taking healthy risks is easier for resilient kids because they don’t worry about failing. They are brave, curious, and trust their instincts. Despite knowing their limits, they push themselves to go beyond what they are comfortable with. As a result, they are able to reach their long-term goals and solve problems independently.
Children who are resilient are able to cope with stressful situations. Children learn that they can confront difficult issues when they have the skills and confidence to confront and work through them. By using their own strength and capabilities to bounce back, they become more confident and self-assured.
By teaching children to solve problems independently, parents can help them overcome uncertainty and build resilience. Parental instinct may be to jump in and help to avoid the discomfort, but this actually weakens the child’s resilience. It is important for children to experience discomfort if they are to learn to work through it and develop their own problem-solving skills. A lack of this skill-set will cause kids to shut down in the face of adversity and experience anxiety.
Role-Modelling:
Modeling resilience is one of the best ways to teach resilience. Observing is an important part of learning for children. Your resilience and perseverance as a parent will influence how much your child perseveres in a task as well. Bringing them into your emotional world at the right time helps them understand that sadness and disappointments are all perfectly normal human experiences. This has the potential to pave the way for exploring what those experiences mean to them and trying out ways to respond to them.
Accept Mistakes, Both Theirs and Yours:
People who avoid failure lack resilience. Adopting a growth mindset and teaching children that mistakes are a part of learning is facilitated by accepting mistakes, even your own. Discussing a mistake you’ve made and how you overcame it might be beneficial.
Build strong Emotional bonds:
Having a solid and positive relationship with your child is extremely important for resilience. Children feel empowered to seek for assistance when necessary and are more inclined to try to get through challenging circumstances when they are aware of their families’ unwavering support.
Teach your kids how to solve difficulties on their own:
Every parent wants to take care of their kids’ problems so they won’t be stressed out. Instead, jointly come up with suggestions as you brainstorm the problems with them.
Parents can participate in the problem-solving process by coming up with solutions with their children.Encourage children to identify potential ideas and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Label emotions:
Stress can cause emotions to become intense. Teach your children that all emotions are acceptable and that identifying them can help them understand what they’re going through. Reassure them that it’s normal to feel nervous, unhappy, envious, etc. and that negative emotions typically pass.
Encourage optimism
Optimism is one of the key characteristics of resilient people.Helping children recognise the positive aspects of any negative situations will alter how they react to them. If they have any negative thoughts, acknowledge them and help them learn to reframe them to see the good side, which will also help them through difficult situations.
Allow them to make decisions:
Encourage them to make their own decisions. Even if they make the wrong decisions, they have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and develop resilience.
Developing resilience over the years is a very personal journey, unique to every child. Parents should use their knowledge of their children to support them in becoming resilient. Being resilient helps children navigate challenges not only in their childhood but well into adulthood as well. It is impossible to avoid stress but the best way to cope with it is to be resilient.