How to Help Your Child Succeed When They Fail

Supporting and Teaching Children in Dealing with Failure

Failure, although a tough pill to swallow, is a normal part of life. It is important that we use something in everyday life to teach our kids about failure. Sports are a great way for your children to stay active, make friends and learn important life lessons. Playing a sport will teach your child about teamwork and how to accept wins and losses. Additionally, it is important that you are supporting them and teaching them how to deal with their failure.

Helping your child implement certain behaviours will allow them to succeed even when they think they have failed. We’ve compiled a list of top tips to help with this. Check them out:

Encourage Compassion

One of the most important things you can teach kids is how to show themselves compassion. After a tough loss they may feel defeated, but it is important that you encourage and inspire them to not give up. You need to show your child compassion in order for them to learn how to treat themselves compassionately. Avoid criticising them for how they played and encourage them to pick themselves up for their next game. This will teach them how to avoid a negative mindset and bounce back from future failure.

Avoid a False Narrative

After failure, it is easy for kids to create a false narrative in their mind. A loss may create a story about how “they failed today, so they will fail tomorrow.” It is important; however, that your child understands that there is no connection between today and tomorrow’s game. Teach them about creating a blank canvas each time they play by avoiding a conversation about past mistakes. Remind them that how they do tomorrow, will only be affected by how they play tomorrow, not today.

Turn the Negative into a Positive

A loss is a great way for your child to learn about their strengths and weaknesses. Help them understand that failure is an opportunity to reveal what skills they need to work on for their next game. Learning their weaknesses now will allow them to improve and succeed in the future.

Teach Them Not to Fear Failure

A great way to help your child succeed after failure is to prepare them for it. Be proactive before failure and teach them not to fear it. Talk to your child about creating a positive mindset and accepting a loss as a positive learning experience. There will always be another opportunity for your child to succeed, so they shouldn’t fear failure when it happens. Once they are able to see that losing is not a terrible thing, their future losses will be easier to deal with.

Sports are a great way for kids to learn about losing. It is important that you teach your child to accept it as a normal part of life and how to deal with it. Teaching your child to implement certain behaviours will allow them to succeed even when they fail.