Being a parent is one of life's most rewarding experiences and, at the same time, one of its most difficult challenges. No one is ever truly ready for the responsibility of raising a child. There are many ways in which child-rearing can go wrong, especially when it comes time to teach kids the most important life lessons, such as honesty, respect, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness, to name a few.
One of the most essential lessons is teaching your kids autonomy.
Parents tend to overprotect their children. They do this on the unfounded belief that by doing so, their children will have an easier life. However, letting your children make mistakes is necessary, because failure can be an exceptionally powerful learning opportunity.
Believe it or not, there are benefits to reap from failing.
Everybody's Gotta Learn, No one Is Born Knowing
Every single human baby that is born does so as a blank slate. As our children grow and their bodies and minds mature, they begin to absorb information at astounding rates. In fact, kids are the fastest and most efficient learners on the planet. Just think about how hard it is to learn a new language; however, toddlers learn to speak in a comparatively short time.
Babies are born with an innate ability to learn, and one of the principal components of learning is making mistakes.
Mistakes Assist
Most parents will have a hard time balancing their instinctive urge to protect with their rational understanding of the potential learning assistance that a mistake represents.
Parents need to learn to know how far to let their children fail. I know this is difficult, but it is absolutely necessary to ensure your child grows into a confident, mature, and independent adult.
Your job is not to prevent mistakes from happening. No, parents, your job should be to create an environment that is conducive to learning.
How do you do this, exactly?
Change your kids' perception of what making a mistake means: Failing a task should be perceived as an opportunity to get it right next time.
Let your kids know that making a mistake is acceptable: Kids spend most of their childhood being afraid. The world is a scary place as it is, so don't make it worse on your children by giving them the impression that failure should be feared.
Teach your kids to use the knowledge afforded to them by their mistakes: Failure is like a ladder. Each rung leads to the next, and you must climb them sequentially if you want to reach the top. In much the same way, each mistake, and the knowledge gained by its occurrence, should be seen as a rung in the ladder towards success.
The Master Has Failed More Times Than The Beginner Has Even Tried
By allowing your kids to fail and teaching to embrace failure as an opportunity for growth, you will set the stage for your kids to be:
● Humble
● Fearless
● Compassionate
● Supportive
● Creative
● Determined
Thomas Eddison said it best:
“I haven’t failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”