The world can be scary, but teaching kids resilience will help!

Have you ever wished you could just pause life while you regain control, change something, or even rewind a certain period and start it again? Wouldn’t that be great?! Unfortunately, we just have deal with life in all its different situations and their consequences. Taking out life insurance with Cigna, which offers affordable tailored packages for your stage of life, is one way of protecting our families. Another is to help kids develop resilience so they can stand up and keep going through the inevitable challenges life will present them.

This means they actually need some challenges to practice these skills with! Resilient kids are problem solvers, and when faced with unfamiliar or tough situations they’ll be confident enough to strive to find good solutions.

Here are some ideas to help you reflect on how you could help your child be resilient.

Talk through with your kids what you do to help the family be resilient. You might include basic, tangible things like, “we take care of our things so they last longer” or intangible things such as ‘We’ve protected mummy and daddy with Cigna Insurance in case something happens’.

Resilient kids also become resilient adults, able to survive and thrive whatever life brings.

Teaching concrete skills to kids gives them empowering tools to use in certain situations. For example, role playing with your shy child how to say ‘Hello’ and ask ‘What’s your name?’ will go a long way to helping them in social situations. Add some gentle humour and you can lighten up what might be a serious issue for your child.

Let them take some age-appropriate risks. By riding their bike down a hill or climbing the ladder to the ‘big’ slide, they’ll start to figure out their comfort levels and be better able to decide what they’re willing to risk doing. And while you’re watching, perhaps it’s timely to make sure you’re covered for any age-appropriate risks you take yourself! Try the Cigna Life Insurance calculator for a quick quote.

Resist the urge to run to your child’s rescue immediately, such as when you see them having trouble getting dressed, feeding themselves, putting things away or when they can’t find something.

Failure is not the end of the world! Letting kids mess up is tough and painful for parents. But it helps kids learn how to fix slip-ups and make better decisions next time.

Let your child see that sometimes they will simply miss out on something. If one child misses a party because they’re sick, but their sibling gets to go, you’re more than likely to hear “it’s not fair!” You can sympathise, but don’t feel you should make it up to them; sometimes, that’s just how it is.

Teaching your child to problem-solve through or around situations is always a great idea. Gently turn the situation around to help them see they have more control than they thought by asking them for some ideas on what could work. Role playing and practising ‘what to do when…’ can help here.