5 Ways Your Kids Can Learn From their Mistakes

Are you guilty of constantly shielding your children from making mistakes? Though it may be unnerving to deliberately allow them make mistakes in view of the consequences they will likely suffer, except their decisions or actions portends dire physical danger, allowing them make mistakes often is one of the best ways to raise wholesome, responsible and independent individuals you’ll be proud of, both in the near and distant future.

See 5 major things your child stands to gain from making mistakes…

1. Improved learning ability. One of the common ways most parents prevent their children from making mistakes is by spoon-feeding them while doing their home work and school projects. Ultimately, you’ll find their usually very impressive scores in these are quite far-fetched compared to their poor or merely average exam or test scores. This is because your spoon-feeding, done in order to prevent mistakes that will make them fail or have poor scores, prevents the child, you and their teachers from determining their true ability and weak points.

Quitting the spoon-feeding in this regard and instead asking lots of questions to help them figure out things on their own will aid improved learning and better grades at school.

2. Zeal to try again. Allowing your child make mistakes will make them learn there is no harm in failing or making the wrong decision as long as they learn from them and take better steps subsequently. As a result, they will be better equipped to handle the consequences of their mistakes, including anger, disappointment and sadness as well as feel immense fulfillment when they get positive outcomes after series of trials.

Children who make mistakes usually learn to be self-motivated, daring or more confident and adventurous, making them likely to record more independent accomplishments.

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3. Better decision-making and problem-solving skills. Because you are not constantly hovering over them, they become more independent by the day and as they say, ‘experience is the best teacher,’, so, they learn to devise better solutions and make wiser decisions as they suffer the consequences of their previous indiscretions or mistakes.

4. Accepting responsibility. A child whose parents never rush to prevent, fix or cover up his mistakes, whether at home, school or elsewhere, learns to think twice before acting as he knows there may be consequences and he will absolutely have to deal with them.

5. Better ability to take on life’s challenges. A child who has made lots of errors while growing up is better equipped to deal with whatever challenges life may throw his way as he has developed lots of coping skills to independently deal with various situations, can make wiser decisions, is not afraid of failing and knows the gains in never giving up, no matter how many times he has to try.

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