School is back in person and most kids & families have settled back into their old routines. Covid is here for at least the foreseeable future & what will matter most is how we learn to live with and adapt to adversity. These are tests of our resilience. Never has resilience been more necessary than in this last year and a half of our lives.
Resilience has become the buzzword of late. But, it’s one of the most important characteristics we can teach our kids; how to adapt when faced with challenges. I saw a great definition of resilience recently, which simply defined it as “struggling well”. Resilience is about bouncing back after a challenge, having the capacity to recover quickly, the ability to adjust to change and becoming more adaptive to significant sources of stress.
Our current parenting culture has many people thinking that we need to fix everything for our own children and shield them from pain. This however is doing them a great disservice. One day they will be without you and will be faced with challenges. The true test of their ability to thrive will be how they can weather these challenges, adapt & recover.
How do we both model resilience to our children and teach them its importance?
What are the lessons learned from the pandemic? What did you learn about yourself that can help you deal with adversity in the future? What did you learn about your child that can help you promote his/her resilience when things are difficult?
Our children don’t need us to be perfect, but to “feel loved & supported by you. We all make mistakes & struggle. Showing our kids we are fallible & emotional is a good lesson. It teaches them that we all fall down at times, it’s how we pick ourselves up that counts.
If you’d like to learn more about resilience & its importance in your family, sign up for my workshop, “Raising Resilient Kids”. Email me for details!