Food & Nutrition
Health & Fitness
Education
Parenting Preparedness
Introduction
Life is like the ocean. It appears endless, with infinite highs and lows. It may rage, it may swell, it may be calm, but it is rarely fixed. Similarly, in life, there are infinite challenges and setbacks, along with opportunities and rewards. One needs to sail through them calmly, without batting an eye.
But this is a trait that will take a long time to learn on one’s own, without proper guidance. Embracing challenges and setbacks is a difficult skill to master, so it is wise to start early with the scope for making silly mistakes in a safe zone. But children nowadays have it more difficult than their previous generations.
With numerous smart technologies and gadgets to distract and tease them, kids are more vulnerable and sensitive nowadays. Thus, parents need not opt between tough love or outright adoration. A balanced approach is key to encouraging kids and developing a growth mindset in them. Here are some tips on how to inspire your children to embrace challenges and setbacks as stoutly as victories.
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Tips To Encourage Your Child To Embrace Challenges And Setbacks
Focus On Efforts, Not Outcomes
It is important for parents to set an example in this case. Start appreciating your child’s efforts and not their results only. Of course, if they ace a class test, you will appreciate their achievement. But first validate their hard work and effort. This will teach them to focus more on working hard than the moment of victory itself, fostering a healthy growth mindset and the ability to meet all kinds of challenges.
Acknowledge Failure Positively
It is not possible to win life’s every battle. So, teach your kids early to acknowledge failure in a positive manner. This does not mean celebrating a poor result in an exam. But learning to recognize, acknowledge, and correct their mistakes from their failure in a fruitful manner. Instead of being down in the dumps and thinking that they are too ‘stupid’ to pass math, teach them to think that they have a lot left to learn. This keeps the opportunity to improve and be better always available to them in an inspiring way.
Avoid Labeling
Avoid labeling your children while criticizing them. Your input is always valuable, but if it makes them feel bad, then your advice is of no use. Instead of saying, ‘You are no good in English’, reply, ‘You have a lot to learn in English. With the right effort you can do it’. This will encourage them to be better and make your words come true
Develop A Healthy Approach To Challenges
It is important to develop a healthy approach to challenges. Do not let them fear examinations. It should be about facing a challenge and trying to play to their strengths while improving their weaknesses. Not giving up in the face of academic pressure and tests. Similarly, in various life’s challenges, instead of an ‘I cannot do it,’ make them believe ‘I will try my best to do this’. It automatically increases their self-esteem and develops a healthy attitude towards setbacks and challenges.
Read Books With Inspiring Characters
Reading is a wonderful habit for kids of all ages. Since young children are highly impressionable, it is ideal to give them lots of moral stories, historical sagas, scientific discovery tales, and various stories with inspiring protagonists. The goal is to make them read tales that teach them something valuable, be it a proverb or a life lesson. For example, stories from the Panchatantra teach kids moral lessons via animal stories. Folk Tales include rural and forest stories with an ethical tangent to delight kids while driving valuable lessons home.
Find A Lesson
It is important to find a lesson in every challenge and setback that your kids face. They may feel like it is the end of the world. But as you know that is not the case; guide them into figuring out a lesson. For example, if they have done badly in a game, help them figure out any mistakes they made, like not practicing hard enough or getting distracted in the middle, to take it as a valuable lesson. Next time, the mistake will not be repeated, and diligence will ensure they perform only better.
Be Supportive And Patient
While all the other tips are to be applied to the kids, this one remains solely for the parents. No matter how tired or upset you are, do not take the frustration out of them. Lack of patient support, especially during the development of a growth mindset in kids, can be detrimental to them in the long run. Your kids are lowering their emotional barriers around you to learn to face the world. If you hit them where it hurts emotionally, they may never trust you or embrace challenges in a positive manner again. So, maintain patience and healthy communication with them.
Conclusion
Children are naturally resilient. But this characteristic needs to be nurtured to bloom fully. It is also a trait without which kids cannot persevere and succeed in modern life. As resilience and the readiness to face challenges is the ultimate solution to burgeoning stress levels, it is not wise to delay inculcating it in them. Therefore, give this guide a try to encourage your kids to embrace challenges and thrive in life.
The views expressed are that of the expert alone.
