I once had a teacher tell me I wasn’t good at math. I believed her, and stopped trying. Guess what? I’m still not very good at math. But maybe I was decent? Except I didn’t know how to handle her criticism.
I realized that as a mother, I’ve been doing my children a major disservice. I cater to their “strengths,” placing them in activities that they are good at and avoiding much exposure to things they aren’t. I hate to see them struggle, but now know the importance of this practice.
I’ve been doing some research on resilience. It hit me that I play a major role in helping my kids learn to fail. Some of the most successful/accomplished individuals weren’t the most skilled, they were actually very good at FAILING. They could take feedback, criticism, and weren’t crippled by not being the best. They kept showing up. Kept trying. Kept pushing.
Let’s help our kiddos fail, and fail fast. That way they can get back up and try again. This is where success lies. Not in skill. But by building their resilience at perhaps not being the best + failing…
