Resilience is the quality that allows us to recover from setbacks or challenges and helps us get back to living our lives. It is one of the most important qualities that you can build in your child.
Usually, resilience is built overtime through various experiences. But as parents, you can help build this faster by supporting your child through any difficult times they experience.
Ways to build resilience in your child:
Help your child develop problem solving skills instead of stepping in to solve it. For instance, if another child behaves unkindly with your child, talk to your child about how he or she is feeling and how they should respond, the next time someone treats them badly.
Allow your child to experience and deal with disappointments. For instance, your child is excited about having a playdate with his friend. But the friend cancels out at the last minute, you don’t need to immediately find another child for a playdate. Instead speak about the reasons why his friend couldn’t visit, why we should understand. Maybe they had an emergency at home.
Encourage your child to move out of their comfort zone. Basically, this is healthy risk-taking which allows for minimal damage in case the child is not successful. For instance, trying out a new sport, or trying to make a new friend or asking the stewardess for an extra blanket in the airplane. This let’s a child try new things and not worry about failure.
Don’t watch out for them. Try not to predict the consequences of their actions, or they will never see it for themselves and learn. Example: don’t remind your child to finish his homework. When he sees that he’s the only one not handing it in, he will actually try to remember to do it! And it’s one task less for you.
Appreciate what’s going well. While it’s important to deal with challenges, it is also equally necessary to count your blessings. Find some time before bedtime each day to thank and appreciate what went well during the day. It instils a positive outlook for the next day. For instance, even though the weather bureau predicted rain, it was sunny all afternoon and kids could play football.