Why Failing Sometimes Actually Benefits Children

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Failure. It’s a word we all fear and strive to avoid, and yet, it’s one that perhaps we should embrace a bit more.

Per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, failure is defined as an “omission of occurrence or performance” or more specifically, “a failing to perform a duty or expected action.” Failure doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, though, since it is through failing that we often discover what our strengths truly are. Our children are no different.

Stopping the Fear of Failure

As a parent, we want nothing more than to see our children be successful in their lives and will often go out of our way to make sure things go as smoothly as possible for them. Despite our best intentions, protecting our children from failure may do more harm than good.

Failure isn’t something to be feared and does not mean the absence of success.  Instead – it is an experience to be had on the way to success. In fact, failure can have many benefits for our kids.

Here are some of the benefits of failure:

  • Develops persistence in the face of difficulties
  • Helps us overcome fear
  • Helps inspire creative ideas and solutions
  • Aids in keeping us humble
  • Helps provide coping skills

Another benefit of failure is the lessons it can provide for our children. These lessons can include:

  • Not everyone will win or get a trophy.
  • There are different talents possessed by all.
  • You need to handle losing or difficult situations with class.
  • You have to be able to learn from past mistakes.
  • We learn from sharing valuable experiences with others.
  • Failure creates perseverance.
  • It’s good to have a sense of humor about errors and missteps.
  • Success inevitably includes some amount of failure.

Without making mistakes and failing at some tasks, our children are missing out on these valuable lessons – lessons that can help them become successful in life now and further down the road.

Helping Your Child Learn to Fail

Helping your child learn to fail is probably a concept that goes against much of the natural parenting “DNA,” but it is very important.

An inability to handle failure is something that can prove highly detrimental to your child’s life and coping skills, so here are some ways you can help teach him or her to accept and bounce back from failure:

  1. Show empathy toward your child’s frustration and disappointment.
  2. Be a model of how to bounce back after failing.
  3. Always make it a teachable moment.
  4. Make sure your child knows that what he or she sees on social media is not always an accurate picture of life.
  5. Take a step back and let your child work through failure on his or her own.

Instead of seeing failure as an always negative thing, it’s time we recognize it for what it is – a wonderful teaching moment and the giver of beneficial experiences for life.

Drama Kids International is here to help support your children through both failures and successes and will always be a safe place for them to explore their creative sides.   For more information about Drama Kids classes and camps, visit us at www.dramakids.com. 

Identifying the Hidden Strengths in Your Child

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We know that our children are strong, but could there be some hidden strengths lying in wait, just hoping to be uncovered? The answer is most likely yes!

Fortunately, there are many ways we as parents can help our children discover and identify those hidden strengths.

The Importance of Strengths

Many people think of strength in physical, mental and emotional terms, but it is much more than this. Strengths are those inner qualities that can help us feel most alive—this means that they can be used to help us lead our best lives and make meaningful contributions to life.

Remember, strengths differ from interests, as interests can change over time. A strength does not disappear as we go through life, but instead usually becomes stronger.  Strengths can help your child overcome challenges, but challenges can also influence some specific strengths, such as perseverance, empathy, courage and assertiveness.

Identifying Strengths

There are three questions you should ask yourself when helping your child identify a true strength:

  1. Does my child enjoy doing it?
  2. Is my child good at it?
  3. Does my child choose to do it?

If the answer is yes to all three, a true strength has been found. For younger children this may be a bit more difficult to figure out, so you can look for tip-offs like when your child becomes so caught up in something that he or she loses track of what is going on all around.

Here are some additional tips for helping discover your child’s strengths:

  • Make use of play and imagination, as it can reveal preferences and how your child views him or herself.
  • Help find what makes him or her unique. For example, showing-off may mean that your child has a strength for entertaining.
  • Start a strengths journal, noting the things that bring joy, hold attention, garner reactions and behavior patterns.
  • Establish family traditions to help your child discover relationship strengths.
  • Listen to him or her, you’d be surprised what can be revealed through simple yes and no questions or asking “why do you think that?”
  • Forget expectations and don’t feel the need to evaluate everything.
  • Don’t compare your child to older siblings. Differing personalities equals different strengths, and siblings can be polar opposites.
  • Present your child with as many choices as possible when appropriate.

Helping your child discover those hidden strengths isn’t something that has to be taxing or stressful, instead it can be a process that occurs naturally with very little “poking and prodding.”

There are many hidden strengths that can be uncovered in your child through the Drama Kids International drama programs. Why not locate the franchise nearest you and let your child become part of the Drama Kids family?