Why Letting Your Kids Fail Could Be The Best Thing To Do For Them

Growing up, people typically look to their parents or other role models for influence and advice on how they will become as parents one day. Often times, people will take mental notes of things they want to incorporate into their parenting rulebook and things that they will avoid at all cost, even before they have children of their own. If someone valued all of the sports that their parents pushed them into trying as a child, they will most likely push their own children to try new sports as well. However, if they hated that their parents dragged them to soccer practice every day after school, then these people may be much more likely to not sign their kids up for new sports constantly.

Being a parent is difficult, and no matter how much mental preparation someone puts into the how they are planning to raise their kids, nothing can truly prepare people for parenthood- except for, that is, a child. So many people spend countless hours stressing about how to raise the perfect child. Every parent wants their kid to be the best. Period. Truth is, nothing is perfect, and one of the best things that you can do as a parent is let them fail.

Now, this may seem a little strange. But, in reality, children will benefit from learning how to deal with and move past failure. Everyone experiences failure in some aspect of their lives. If parents can teach their children that failure isn’t always the end of the world, these children will have a leg up in the future when they are no longer coddled by their parents and are placed in real life scenarios. For example, if a child doesn’t get picked to play on his middle school’s basketball team and his parent teaches him that he should take this as an opportunity to pursue other things that he loves, then this child will realize that there is more to life than being chosen to play on a sports team. However, if a teenager who was never taught that failure can be overcome does not receive a scholarship for football after four years on the varsity team, he will most likely not know how to cope and may become very depressed. Teaching your children the value of overcoming failure is an incredible way to build their character.