Have you ever noticed kids telling white lies or just blaming their mistakes on someone or something else? Most kids find shifting the blame an easier route than accepting their mistakes. And this is because most kids are only busy following instructions from parents, teachers, hobby instructors or coaches. So how do we teach kids to deal with mistakes?
Here are some pointers:
Accept your own mistakes
Everyone usually makes a lot of mistakes all the time. Sometimes big, sometimes trivial and sometimes ignorable. But what’s important is that we all give ourselves opportunities to make mistakes and learn from them as adults. So, this should be possible for kids too. And the right way to do it is to be aware of and accept our own mistakes as parents. Say ‘I’m sorry’ when in the wrong and let your child hear it. This shows them that it’s ok to make mistakes and own them.
Talk about your mistakes
We all make many errors or blunders each day. But when we talk about our day, we only talk about the good things. Talking about what went wrong and how we dealt with it can be a very inspiring story for kids. Even if you’re unable to deal with errors and just accepted the consequences, it’s essential to speak to kids about it. This teaches kids to face consequences.
Apologise properly
A heartfelt apology never fails to go a long way to fix a bad situation. Talk to your child about the different ways to apologise depending on the gravity of the situation. Sometimes a written apology is equally expressive.
Review the lesson learnt
Always talk to kids about why a mistake happened and how things could have been done differently. Reviewing the cause of the mistake is vital to prevent the same error in the future.
Appreciate kids who own up
Tell your child how proud you are about how he dealt with a mistake he committed. The fact that he recognized it, thought about apologizing and also offered a compensation to rectify the situation is commendable. This ensures that kids will follow this process each time they do something unacceptable.
Don’t have their back
We all rush back to retrieve forgotten lunch boxes or homework. Sometimes it is important to let go and let the child experience the consequences. This also let’s them think and come up with ways to resolve some situation. For instance, if a child forgets his lunch at home, he might share with friends, or ask the teacher for a solution or decide to go hungry. But the next time, he will learn to remember not to forget his lunch.