Teach Your Child Grit

Teach Your Child Grit


Millennials do not stay long in jobs. They often seek new positions, looking for the job that makes them happy at a company they believe in. Some people admire their persistence to find the right position, while others see it as a lack of grit, or an unwillingness to put in the time to move up the ranks.
Parenting strategies shifted to the believe that every child deserves a trophy for participation, that a child should never fail, and that our children can do anything they try. This shift led to, in many cases, young adults who are less prepared to cope with adulthood and real-life challenges in and out of the workplace. In short, young adults seem to lack grit and resilience, two characteristics key to a successful professional career.
The parenting pendulum seems to be swinging back toward teaching independence and valuing the importance of failure to learning and growing.
However, it’s important to note we live in an age of instant gratification and overnight successes. Millennials and younger individuals see people become overnight sensations on Youtube or on the latest reality show, and many are accustomed to getting something they want when they want it.
To balance parenting styles with cultural factors, it’s important for kids to learn grit as they age. Here are a few strategies to cultivate grit in your child:

1. Have Them Make Their Beds Each Morning.

Okay, it doesn’t have to be the bed. But make sure your kids start each day right. Whether it means making their bed neatly and tightly after they wake up, or packing their own lunch, or tidying up their room, make sure they’ve done something productive and done it well first thing in the morning. That way, if at the end of the day, nothing seems to have gone right, at least they made their bed, ate a good lunch, or cleaned their room.

2. Don't pack their suitcase for them

Whether you’re going camping, sending your child to a sleepover, or going to a weeklong camp, have them pack their own bag. It’s fine if they forget something. They likely won’t forget it again, and they’ll have to learn to cope without the forgotten item or find a way to procure a replacement.

3. Encourage them to problem solve

It is not unusual for kids and adults alike to feel overwhelmed when they see a problem. Often we become paralyzed by the problem and are not able to figure out a solution. Encourage your kids to find smaller problems within a challenge, and find answers to those questions first. Help break it down for them if necessary, then let them propose a solution.

4. Don’t focus on the result; focus on the efforts

This is especially important in our test-focused, competitive culture. There is heavy emphasis on passing tests and achieving a good GPA. Schools also teach resilience and grit, factoring efforts on activities into grades. Similar praise should be awarded for working extremely hard as for getting an A.

5. They can all learn grit


No two children are the same. Some may have natural grit while others must develop it. For those children who must develop grit, the trick is to allow your child to occasionally fail. Help them find the lesson in the failure, and move on. Also, help them find things they love and are good at. Working at something they love inspires grit -- if they fail or hit a setback at something they love, they’re likely to pick it up again and try until they are successful. These lessons carry over to activities they find tough. 
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