Do Kids Have It Tough Out There?

Antoinette Steyn • June 2, 2020
Is the world tougher for our kids than it was for us when we were their age? It might be. Lately, I could not help but notice that when you find yourself in a conversation with other parents, they utter the following words: “Our poor kids, they have so much homework, there is so much pressure on them, they have it so tough. In our days we played outside all afternoon, these poor kids only do homework.”

The worst part is many parents utter these words in the presence of their kids. The possibility remains that your child can hear these words and start feeling sorry for themselves. They might have been perfectly fine, but since you started worrying, they start worrying as well. You are not helping your child at all when you come across as overwhelmed by the pressure they have to deal with. Resilience is a skill which will benefit our kids greatly in life. Sometimes your child might be tested beyond the abilities they currently hold. This is not always a bad thing. We need to allow the natural resiliency of our kids to kick in. Sometimes our kids’ greatest downfall is us as parents, who blow things out of proportion or who struggle with our own challenges.  

Were you taught how to deal with failure? Were you taught that failure is a part of life and that you need to search for and find the opportunity for growth within failure? Were you taught that your worth is not based on your successes or performance rate? How we react and what we think about failure we experienced can influence the way our children deal with the failures they will invariably encounter in life.

We can’t contribute to their pressure! We need to teach our kids resilience. With resilience and EQ, they can start to deal with many of the challenges they are faced with. Just because we as parents feel overwhelmed does not give us the right to project that onto our kids. Let’s start believing in our kids again, let’s help them choose to laugh more, learn more and take some risks for a change. Yes, the world is tough out there but so are our kids. Start believing in your child’s ability to show resilience, guide them in doing so and help them value the lessons they can learn from enduring challenges.

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