Kids need plenty of practice failing.
But of course, not all failure helps kids.
We don’t want our kids to fail to find work, meaning, or happiness, for example. That’s catastrophic failure—the type of failure we should help them avoid at all costs.
And the best way to avoid catastrophic failure as an adult is to make lots of small failures as a kid.
It’s from small failures that we learn to avoid mistakes with life-altering consequences.
So, how can we help kids fail in ways that are helpful, not hurtful?
1. Give kids lots of opportunities for small failures.
2. Celebrate failures as opportunities to start again
3. Encourage the right kind of self-talk
4. Share your own failures with them
5. Talk about heroes who used failure to succeed
