Why Failing Sometimes Actually Benefits Children

Failure. It’s a word we all fear and strive to avoid, and yet, it’s one that perhaps we should embrace a bit more.

Per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, failure is defined as an “omission of occurrence or performance” or more specifically, “a failing to perform a duty or expected action.” Failure doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, though, since it is through failing that we often discover what our strengths truly are. Our children are no different.

Stopping the Fear of Failure

As a parent, we want nothing more than to see our children be successful in their lives and will often go out of our way to make sure things go as smoothly as possible for them. Despite our best intentions, protecting our children from failure may do more harm than good.

Failure isn’t something to be feared and does not mean the absence of success.  Instead – it is an experience to be had on the way to success. In fact, failure can have many benefits for our kids.

Here are some of the benefits of failure:

• Develops persistence in the face of difficulties
• Helps us overcome fear
• Helps inspire creative ideas and solutions
• Aids in keeping us humble
• Helps provide coping skills

Another benefit of failure is the lessons it can provide for our children. These lessons can include:

• Not everyone will win or get a trophy.
• There are different talents possessed by all.
• You need to handle losing or difficult situations with class.
• You have to be able to learn from past mistakes.
• We learn from sharing valuable experiences with others.
• Failure creates perseverance.
• It’s good to have a sense of humor about errors and missteps.
• Success inevitably includes some amount of failure.

Without making mistakes and failing at some tasks, our children are missing out on these valuable lessons – lessons that can help them become successful in life now and further down the road.

Helping Your Child Learn to Fail

Helping your child learn to fail is probably a concept that goes against much of the natural parenting “DNA,” but it is very important.

An inability to handle failure is something that can prove highly detrimental to your child’s life and coping skills, so here are some ways you can help teach him or her to accept and bounce back from failure:

1. Show empathy toward your child’s frustration and disappointment.
2. Be a model of how to bounce back after failing.
3. Always make it a teachable moment.
4. Make sure your child knows that what he or she sees on social media is not always an accurate picture of life.
5. Take a step back and let your child work through failure on his or her own.

Instead of seeing failure as an always negative thing, it’s time we recognize it for what it is – a wonderful teaching moment and the giver of beneficial experiences for life.

Drama Kids International is here to help support your children through both failures and successes and will always be a safe place for them to explore their creative sides.   For more information about Drama Kids classes and camps, visit us at www.dramakids.com.