“Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.” -Robert A. Heinlein
I have been thinking a lot about the quotation above. By meeting my child’s every whim and not letting him struggle every now and then, am I robbing him of the opportunities to grow and become a capable, resilient human being?
After all, haven’t so many inspiring people been through terrible hardships? They have learned to meet their challenges head on, cultivated new capacities from them, and risen above whatever was holding them back. These heroes and change-makers developed skills and compassion beyond other people around them… perhaps in part due to the tough circumstances they have faced in life.
Struggles are not *bad* things that we should hide from. Instead, we should embrace them as learning opportunities. But in today’s world where life can be so *easy* what might this look like for our children?
I have done quite a bit of brainstorming about this and shared 25 practical ways you can help your children learn about resilience over at Creative With Kids – one of my favorite parenting blogs. Visit the post by clicking here.
You can also download a printable of the list of 25 ideas (though this does not contain the whole article – to read it, you must visit the post!) here:
Download the list as a PDF by clicking here.
I hope you enjoy the post, and feel free to comment below with your own ideas or suggestions about how to teach kids resilience!
Chelsea, I love these, thank you for being so thought-provoking and providing this valuable list! Love it!! -Amy
It’s such a great quote. I see so many people (my kids grandparents included) who jump in so quickly to solve problems for kids or answer questions for them instead of giving them a few seconds to work it out themselves…
Thank you for sharing these ideas! I never gave shape to such opinions, but somehow I know this is true and have positive effects if we apply it; maybe because of the way my mother raised me.
I’m 27 years old, I don’t have my own kids (yet) and I’m not even married; but I do have a few children I work with from my church; and your list is just useful.
Many blessings!
Very real. Very nice. Thank you. I have printed it out and it’s on my fridge now 🙂
Lovely, I hope it helps! x
What a great article! Thank you for sharing this!
I printed the pdf and read it. So amazing!
Thanks for sharing this!!
xoxo
that was perfect
What a great quote from Robert Heinlein to sum up your point. It does not pay to be an over protective parent. Pinning now!
Thats great… thanx for shating with us
Great list! The first thing that jumped out at me was allowing them to face obstacles on their own, and thus overcome them on their own. Whether it’s a physical thing in a playground or a social anxiety thing like traveling to a new country, by exposing our children to challenges, they are given the chance to build up the confidence and resilience that comes with overcoming adversity.