Building self-esteem in
children can be the most lasting gift an adult can give.
Take a tip from Thomas Edison,
who had thousands of failed experiments when trying to invent the light bulb.
With each failure, Edison said
he learned something that didn’t work, so he was one step closer to finding
something that did.
That attitude can be found in
most successful people. They don’t seem to think in terms of the word
‘failure.’ They talk about a ‘glitch,’ a ‘problem,’ or a ‘snag.’
And even when something doesn’t
work as planned, they try to learn from the experience.
We can all help teach this
mind-set to our children.
When they don’t succeed, we
should help them find something to learn from the experience.
A good question to ask is:
“What would you do differently next time?”
Sometimes that lesson is more
important than the task that didn’t get accomplished.
We should always let our
children know we’re proud of them for trying. That support gives them the
confidence to try again.
