The Best Parents Fail
As parents, it’s natural to want to protect our kids from failure, hoping they’ll experience only success and happiness. However, that's just not how life works.
Failure is not only inevitable; it’s essential.
Allowing our children to experience small setbacks and see us navigate our own mistakes helps them build resilience and learn that failure isn’t something to fear—it’s an opportunity to grow.
When we fail in front of our children and handle it with grace (or as much as we can), we’re teaching them that no one is perfect and that growth comes from facing life’s challenges with determination. It can be a powerful lesson to show that it’s not about always getting things right; it’s about what we learn when things go wrong. Kids need to see us stumble and recover so they learn that failure is not an end, but rather a part of learning.
One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is a “soft pillow” to land on when they experience failure. When they make mistakes under our guidance, they have a safe place to process what happened, understand it, and try again. Instead of facing a harsh world unprepared when they launch, they can develop the problem-solving tools and confidence they’ll need for bigger challenges down the road. By letting them experience manageable setbacks now, we’re equipping them with the resilience and grit that will support them through life’s bigger tests later on.
Allowing children to fail helps them build their own “toolbox” for handling life’s ups and downs. Skills like patience, self-reflection, and problem-solving don’t come solely from success; they’re forged through perseverance. When we step back and give them space to try, fail, and try again, they learn to adjust their approach, find solutions, and ultimately gain confidence in their own abilities. This is where resilience is built.
While it can feel uncomfortable at first, embracing failure as a family can redefine how we all look at setbacks. By treating failure as a stepping stone, we help them see it as a positive, even necessary, part of growth. Together, we can teach our kids that failing isn’t something to be ashamed of—it’s simply part of building a creative and successful life.
Allowing for mistakes and showing how we recover is one of the greatest gifts we can offer our children. Let’s embrace our stumbles and celebrate the times we get back up, knowing that resilient parenting isn’t about perfection; it’s about progress.