Children are often taught to believe that success is the ultimate goal in every aspect of their lives, and success is usually defined as winning or being the best at something. So they strive to be the best at their chosen sport or will try to outshine their classmates academically. Some children thrive under the pressure of their parents having such high expectations of them. However for others, this pressure can make them too scared to participate in activities and take on new challenges for fear of failing and ‘getting things wrong’.

Making sure that your children embrace mistakes and have a ‘positive’ perception of failure  is so important because it empowers them to take on any challenge that life throws at them. It helps them to recognise that success or failure isn’t as important as putting in the effort to do the best they can and learn from the experience if they do end up failing. A really effective way of changing your child’s attitude to failure is by teaching them them that the word FAIL can be considered as an acronym for ‘First Attempt In Learning’. This will help them to embrace failure and the mistakes they make, and will maximise their chances of growing to become happy, fulfilled and resilient adults.

Inspirational Quotes:

“Experience is making mistakes and learning from them.” – Bill Ackman

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” – John Wooden

These are just a few examples of our Best of Parenting tips. You can find more ideas and solutions to typical parenting challenges in our book ‘Kids Don’t Come With a Manual – The Essential Guide to a Happy Family Life‘.