Engaging in positive and healthy risks with your children this holiday period can have an abundance of beneficial outcomes. Research shows that it is vital for our children to take positive risks to develop a sense of identity, establish autonomy, hone new skills, and take advantage of exciting opportunities.
Engaging in healthy risk taking helps our children to develop resilience. We can all be a bit over-protective at times when it comes to our children, however, it is important to remember that without experimentation and failure, resilience is unattainable. If our children never leave their comfort zone, they won’t learn anything about themselves and the world around them. Encourage them to explore different sports, activities, friendship groups and hobbies. As a father, you have a significant ability to help encourage your children to get out of their comfort zone and try new things.
On the topic of healthy risk taking, The Fathering Project founder Bruce Robinson tells fathers to remember that “Failure is fine, and you learn from failure… that’s what resilience is, learning from failure and realising that you can do it.”
Top Tips
- Encourage your children to have a go and try new things. Support them to try different activities and sports and explore their capabilities.
- Teach your kids that it is okay to fail. This will help them see mistakes as an important part of learning. If we all feared mistakes, we would never challenge ourselves.
- Encourage perseverance and not giving up. Help them stay positive through failure or setbacks.
- Help them experience success and accomplish their goals. Ask your children to think of something they would like to do and help them accomplish this.
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