Teach them to take reasonable risk

Teach them to take reasonable risk
ATTHAMEENI/SHUTTERSTOCK

I see a lot of parents who try to eliminate all risk from their child’s lives, and that’s natural, explains Lyon, but studies indicate that children of anxious parents have an increased risk of developing anxiety. “If you want to create emotional resilience, you have to be counterintuitive to what your ‘loving parent’ instincts are telling you to do,” says Lyon. The best way to do this is to allow kids to step into experiences that make them uncomfortable, and then teach them what to do with their feelings. For example, when your son drops the ball in left field and the team loses the game, there is nothing you can do to fix that, says Lyons. “You have to teach them that feelings dissipate over time. They also need to understand that when you are playing a game where there is a winner and a loser, when you step into the arena, you have to be able to handle both consequences.”

Sign up here to get Reader’s Digest’s favourite stories straight to your inbox!

Source: RD.com

Advertisement

Never miss a deal again - sign up now!

Connect with us: