Improve your child's resilience! 4 key ways...

September is a time of many changes - new schedules, earlier bedtimes, and often new schools. Children who are resilient and adaptable cope best. If you have a child that doesn't do well with new situations or change, here are 4 tips that will help him bounce back and become more resilient:

1.   Be incompetent so that he becomes competent. In other words, don't do for your child what he's able to do for himself. Children soon learn that they survive the initial struggle of being responsible, and that with time and practice they actually manage better.
 

2.   Teach your child problem solving skills. Explore various options together, along with the pros and cons. Contribute your own ideas only as a last resort - the goal is for the child to experience the process and to feel comfortable making decisions.
 

3.   Resist the temptation to protect your child from the results of her choices. This one is tough for most of us, but critical to the process of growing resilient kids.
 

4.   Take comfort in knowing that even if your child is unhappy at times, she is learning that uncomfortable feelings can be sustained, dealt with and eventually overcome. This holds true for many feelings, such as disappointment, embarrassment, frustration, etc. A parent's role is to be empathetic and supportive, not to "fix it".

Here are a few more resources that can help:

· Attend a Parenting Course: Raising Great Kids

· Join this upcoming Teleseminar: The Self-reliant Child

· NY Times Article: Raising Successful Children

 

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Family Event: The Our Kids Private School Expo is happening across Canada. For information and to register go online to www.ourkids.net/expo.
To get FREE admission use our Parenting Network promocode: PN2012.


Beverley & Doone
416-480-2499