What Is Resilience and How Can We Teach Our Children About It?

How do people learn to weather life’s storms? Why do some kids seem to bounce back from disappointments more easily than others? Why are some people crushed by failure while others are undeterred?

It’s all about how much resilience an individual has.

What is resilience and how can we teach our children about it? Let’s find out.

What Is Resilience?

Resilience is the character attribute that can be defined as your ability to bounce back from disappointments or failures. People who manage to stay positive in the face of adversity or don’t give up when the going gets tough are said to have a lot of resilience.

How Does Resilience Develop?

Thus, resilience is an enviable trait and many of us might wonder how we can get more of it.

To figure that out, it’s important to know where resilience comes from in the first place. Every individual is born with a certain amount of innate resilience. Babies keep getting back up even though they fall when they take their first steps.

However, you might notice that some babies get back up more easily whereas others might take longer or be more cautious about their next attempts. Some might even give up altogether that day and only try again days or weeks later.

Thankfully, innate resilience isn’t the only kind that exists. We can also develop resilience through life experiences and by observing resilient behaviour in others.

Helping Your Child Develop More Resilience

With that in mind, you can help your child develop more resilience — and build resilience in yourself at the same time!

How do you do it? Here are a few tips.

Having a stable, loving relationship with at least one adult is the most common factor among highly resilient children. Another big help is to be involved in a community, such as a church or cultural heritage group.

Look for the silver lining in your own situations. If you maintain a positive attitude and display resilient behaviour, you’re teaching your child how to be more resilient.

You can also encourage your child to be more independent. Give them responsibilities around the house and let them make some decisions for themselves.

In some cases, mental health therapy for children can be helpful. Some children face crippling circumstances early on, such as the death of a parent or close friend. Therapy is an excellent way to help the child through these difficult circumstances.

Standing Strong in a Tough World

We would all love to stand strong in the face of rough circumstances, but we’ve all had dark moments when we feel like we’re breaking. We would all love for our children never to face those dark moments as we have but this wish is unrealistic. What we can do, however, is better prepare them to weather the storm.