You want your kids to be healthy and happy but you know life has its ups and downs. So how do you teach your kids to thrive in the tough times?
Here’s seven tried and true tips for building resilient children. Trust us, resilient children are resilient adults – this is a truly important life skill!
Let your kids know you love them no matter what.
Seems obvious hey? But when it comes to resilience, your kids need to feel cared about. Tell them. Show them. A hug, a kiss, a high five, love notes in their lunch boxes. And they need to know that your love is unconditional, that you love them for who they are no matter what they do.
Listen. Really listen.
This is a really big one when it comes to resilience. Be available and approachable. As they say, listen to the little things so your kids will feel comfortable telling you the big things.
Help your kids learn how to handle their feelings.
Your kids need to know that whatever they’re feeling is okay. Anger, sadness, joy, excitement, loneliness, frustration are all normal emotions. Help your kids learn how to manage their feelings and feel safe saying how they’re feeling, why, and what they need.
Teach your kids how to problem solve.
When your kids are facing a kid-sized problem, don’t give them all the answers. Instead, help them figure out different ways to solve it. Let your kids learn that there’s always more than one way to do something or to get where they want to go. Let them decide which way to try first and encourage them to try again if they need to.
Let your kids take age-appropriate risks.
This is a really hard one. We all want to protect our children. But your kids can’t learn to be responsible and independent unless you let them try things for themselves. Letting your kids take age-appropriate risks means that sometimes they’ll succeed and sometimes they’ll make mistakes. Either way, they’ll learn that their decisions have consequences and that you are there to love and support them.
Let them be themselves.
Accepting your kids for who they are is so important to them feeling loved. Focus on who they are, what they enjoy and who they want to be. Value their opinion. Ask them what feels right to them and why. Support them to be brave enough to be themselves.
Show your kids what resilience looks like
The old saying that kids learn what they live is very true. Let your kids see you being resilient. Handle your emotions. Face problems. Be able to see different perspectives. Let them see you try, stumble and overcome challenges. Show them that to be lovable you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be yourself.
Resilience is a quality learned over time but implementing these strategies will definitely help your little people to learn to roll with life’s challenges, tackle life’s issues and bounce back from a set back. Here’s to resilient children!
