Every parent wants to give their kids all of the tools they will need to live healthy and productive lives once they grow up. There are many skills that kids rely on parents to pass on to them and without them, they may fall short on many goals in their life. As a parent, it can be difficult to know exactly what you can do to help you in your goal to raising resilient kids. But you don’t need to know everything — who does? There are a few simple skills that you can teach your kids so they grow up to understand what they need to do to have happy, well-adjusted lives.
Creativity
You may think that creativity is a natural ability: either you have it or you don’t. But nothing can be further from the truth. Just like anything worth doing in life, creativity just takes a little practice.
You should encourage your children to explore their creative side any chance you get. From a young age, showing kids the value of creative endeavours can have a meaningful impact on their lives to come. Read to them. Give them the tools they need, like crayons, drawing supplies and paints to see if they catch the spark. And with today’s technology, you can even find apps that use their smartphones or tablets (like this colouring book app by Apalon Apps) so they can get creative anytime they want to.
Introducing your kids to creative subjects will help them understand and appreciate art in all its forms, leading to a more fruitful life.
Problem Solving
It can be tough to force yourself not to help your kids out anytime an obstacle comes along — it’s a natural response to help your children — but there are times when you should let them figure things out on their own.
As adults, your kids will need to understand how to navigate all of the problems that life can throw at them, so allowing them to figure things out on their own at a young age will encourage problem-solving skills. If they lose a toy, don’t find it for them: help them find it on their own. As they grow, let them figure out tougher problems, such as dealing with forgotten books for school.
This will teach them responsibility and ways to correct mistakes.
Resiliency
Your kids will ultimately only know what resiliency is if they see it in you. Kids often emulate their parents, and if they see a lack of resiliency in you, they may learn bad habits.
When you are faced with tough challenges in life, approach them the same way you would want your kids to. If you make a mistake in life, talk to your kids about it. You can take the opportunity to show them how you plan on fixing the problem so that they will have a model in mind once they grow up.
Raising resilient kids is a hard task, but you can do it if you focus on a few vital life skills.