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How to Raise a Resilient Child

Resilience helps children to withstand and recover quickly from difficult situations. Children who are raised to have a resilient attitude will not only feel more confident, but they will also be better equipped to face future challenges.

So how can parents help children to become more resilient? Here are some great tips from a boarding preparatory school in East Grinstead.

No complaints

Children learn so much by watching how their parents behave, so it is incredibly important to demonstrate your own resilient attitude. Think about how you react in stressful situations and try not to complain in front of your children. The more they hear you complain, the more likely it is that they will too.

Keep trying

Talk about what the word ‘resilience’ means and teach your child how to have a ‘growth mind-set’. A growth mind-set is really useful for children, because it will support them through many challenges and setbacks. Children with a growth mind-set believe that their abilities will improve over time, which motivates them to keep trying.

More responsibility

Giving your child more responsibility will also help to build a resilient attitude. Allow your child do more things on their own to help them to learn and to boost their confidence. You could give them more responsibility at home by asking them to feed a pet or sort out your recycling. This will increase their feelings of competency and give you a helping hand with your chores.

Learn from mistakes

As a parent, it is natural to want to protect children from failure, however occasionally they need to make mistakes in order to learn and build resilience. Allowing your child make mistakes will help them to identify where they went wrong, which will build their confidence when doing the same task again.

Managing emotions

Finally, it is important to acknowledge your child’s feelings and show them that you understand how they feel. Help your child to recognise these feelings by labelling them. For example, “I know you feel sad that you can’t go to your friend’s house” or “I can see you are frustrated that your toy isn’t working”. This will help your child to learn about emotions and how to handle them.

Sarah

This is a collaborative post

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