A parent's natural instinct is often to head off any negative experiences for their children and to keep life comfortable and consistent. However, allowing our children the opportunity to take responsibility, problem-solve and ask for help when needed is vital to help them build resilience and cope with the many challenges life throws our way. This is important, as research consistently shows that greater resilience is associated with greater wellbeing (Mesman et al., 2021).
Try this!
As parents, you can foster resilience in your child by:
- Promoting problem-solving and asking ‘how’ questions (e.g., “how might you cope with XX”); try not to provide all the answers.
- Letting you child make mistakes – as uncomfortable as this can be, this is how we promote growth and learning.
- Modelling resiliency – for example, if you make a mistake, acknowledge it and talk about different ways of responding/coping in future.
Further resources:
School TV has a suite of resources dedicated to resilience:
- Teaching kids to be brave: Explaining what courage is - https://knox.nsw.schooltv.me/newsletter-article/7226/64
- To raise resilient kids, be a resilient parent - https://knox.nsw.schooltv.me/newsletter-article/7222/64
- 10 tips to raising resilience kids - https://knox.nsw.schooltv.me/newsletter-article/7223/64
- Brief video interviews, with topics including:
- Why do kids need resilience?
- How can parents build resilience in children?
- Are levels of resilience youth changing?
- Is there a style of parenting that supports resilience?
- What contributes to a deterioration of resilience and mental health?
- How can parents prepare their children for the future?