ByOnlinecourses55
Preparing children for adversities - foster children autonomy
Family relationships at home are the first school that every human being has to prepare him/her to face life in society. It is common for parents to want to overprotect their children, to spare them suffering and make them feel that everything will always be okay. Eventually, however, children grow up and must face the reality that their parents will not always be there to protect them. In this context, overprotection can hinder a child's growth and development.
This guide addresses how to educate children to face adversity and accept it as an inevitable part of life.
A fundamental aspect is to naturalize adversity. We should not make everything look easy or create the false idea that we will always achieve what we want. Life is full of attempts, successes and failures. Instead of hiding failures, it is important to teach children to learn from them. Letting them experience, in non-serious situations, the feeling of failure can be helpful. Those who do not learn to naturalize failures live justifying or victimizing themselves.
Let your child understand that both successes and failures are part of the journey, but what is important is how he or she deals with the results.
Instilling the value of experience, especially negative ones, is essential. A negative experience only means that our actions did not achieve the expected result, but it does not imply that we cannot achieve it in the future by adjusting our strategies. From mistakes, new resources are obtained to choose better paths.
If the result is positive, encourage your child to repeat the process to consolidate what has been learned. If it is negative, naturalize the mistake and look for new ways to try. Avoid blaming the child, as this encourages fear of making mistakes, which could lead to conformism and lack of proactivity in their adult life. Work on their spirit of self-improvement and personal growth.
