Mistakes Make You Great!

[David Edgren]

Mistakes make successful people in the real world. When we are in school, making mistakes often means we failed. If we want to create successful adults out of our children, we need to encourage mistakes! This is done by focusing on the journey rather than the destination.

Getting kids to process their mistakes and keep working is not easy. Yet, every mistake our kids make provides an opportunity for growth, learning and a new level of maturity.

As parents, how do we create successful people who keep trying and making mistakes boldly so they keep learning and growing?  The answer is fairly simple but applying it is hard work: We need to encourage the process rather than the result.

What does that look like?

Instead of saying, “Good Job! That’s a great drawing!” you could say, “Your drawing is really taking shape! What are you going to add next?”

Rather than saying, “Oops. You’ve dropped some egg shell in the batter!” you could say, “Wow! That batter is almost ready. What are you going to do about that eggshell?”

The goal in process parenting is to recognise we are not finished yet. We are making great people and every drawing, every project, every walk, every shopping trip, every shoe tying, everything! – is a step toward the eternally repeated goal of saying, “I’m constantly amazed by you. What are you going to do next?” 

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For more parenting pondering, 

see the "Parently" section of this blog.

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