Surprised by the title? You can judge the article by its title! Life’s setbacks can be challenging, especially for parents witnessing their children struggle. However, these hardships often hold valuable lessons. Discover why trying to erase failures might not be the best approach as we delve into the article further.
Every Parents’ Dilemma: To Save or Not to Save
As one should, parents feel their children’s successes and failures deeply. The desire to shield them from pain is natural. But what if we could use a magic wand to erase their setbacks? Surprisingly, most parents wouldn’t, and here’s why.
Consider setbacks as Building Blocks
Failure, in its various forms, is a teacher of resilience and coping skills. It’s the process of bouncing back from adversity that equips kids for happier lives. You can further understand it better with the Goldilocks principle.
The Goldilocks Principle
Just like every other element in the world, failure operates on a Goldilocks principle – not too little, not too much, but just the right amount of setbacks to learn, grow, and emerge stronger. Now that you have understood the importance of failure, you might be wondering how can you help your child navigate around their failures.
The Essential Tool is A Three-Step Process
To help children navigate tough times effectively, follow this three-step process:
1. Contain the Problem: Identify the issue and prevent it from worsening.
2. Resolve the Problem: Take actionable steps to improve the situation. Seek professional help if needed. More than often times, as a parent we think emotionally and act irrationally. Instead of dismissing your child’s feelings altogether, correcting and resolving the problem with empathy and taking their feelings into consideration will have a better outcome.
3. Evolve: Move forward. Don’t dwell on past mistakes. Focus on positive growth and new possibilities. In the Indian context, we do have a tendency to dwell on past mistakes and keep remembering them time and again. Stop! If your child made a mistake, focus on the learning outcome from the mistake rather than the shortcoming.
So what did we learn?
Rather than seeking to erase failures, parents should guide their children through them. Setbacks are not the end but the beginning of character-building journeys. Empathize and consider their feelings while you are correcting their mistakes.
