Disappointment is a normal part of life. The pandemic has changed everyone’s life on some level. In some ways, life has never entirely returned to the same. Life is hectic enough for anyone to feel sad, discouraged, and disappointed. This includes children as well.
As a parent, it’s natural that you’d like to shield your children from difficult situations. Nonetheless, dealing with losses has positive effects. Otherwise, your children may struggle as adults when they encounter larger disappointments in their future.
How can you guide your children and help them deal with disappointments?
Try the ideas below for assisting your kids in learning how to deal with disappointment.
Openly Talk with Your Children About Disappointments
Suppressing disappointments isn’t a positive way to handle them. Your son or daughter will learn vital life skills when they know it is okay to talk about their feelings and not suppress them.
These techniques can help you discuss your children’s disappointments with them:
Be Empathetic:
Help your child to understand their emotions. Validate their experiences, even if it’s different from your own. Avoid saying anything that might sound judgmental or dismissive.
Ask Your Children Questions:
Make sure that you know what’s bothering your child. Ask them thought-provoking questions without badgering them that will allow them to open up and share with you what they are feeling and experiencing. For instance, they may be overwhelmed that this is their senior year in high school and worry about staying connected with their friends.
Offer Your Child Some Perspective:
Develop a sense of perspective in your children, and provide information on how to deal with disappointment. They will be exposed to similar experiences throughout their life. Tell them that their current experience will pass.
Always Maintain Honesty:
Be honest with your children. It is best to try to avoid making unrealistic promises. The best plan of action is to share information with your children that is honest and age-appropriate.
Positivity:
Maintaining a positive attitude is essential for dealing with disappointments. Even when things don’t go as planned, there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Your children reap lasting benefits when you model positivity for them.
Here are Additional Coping Strategies that Can Help Your Kids Deal with Disappointments:
Effective communication is a great way to address your child’s fears and doubts. It can lead you and your child both to discover the best way to achieve something when faced with obstacles is to concentrate.
Present them with Choices:
Cultivating your child’s sense of control is important in improving his or her disposition. Show compassion while providing simple suggestions and interventions to help your child adopt healthier behaviors.
Reduce their Stress Level:
Preparing for and handling difficult situations is a valuable life lesson for your children. Your child will need to learn to calm themselves as they get older. Teaching them how to manage their emotions can mean reaching for a book, listening to age-appropriate calming music, or cuddling with their favorite toy.
Manage their Expectations:
Helping your children build self-awareness and self-knowledge will make hardships feel easier to manage. Encourage them to pursue the various paths available rather than putting more emphasis on meeting the standards of others.
Stick Together:
An advantage of dealing with difficult periods is the possibility that they can form strong relationships between people. Your son or daughter may feel more comfortable and more connected to you, other family members, or friends due to experiencing shared hardships.
Offer to Help Them Out:
Reaching out to help your child deal with disappointments helps them, and it also is beneficial to you.
Love Your Children Unconditionally.
The added weight of feeling they have let you down can be difficult for your children. They may already feel bad about the situation. Feeling as if they have disappointed you is added pressure. Be sure to convey unconditional love to your children. Your love will help them bounce back, and it may also be just what they need to help them overcome the hurdles they are facing.
Have Some Faith
Your child will tend to overcome disappointment if you express confidence in them and praise them for their achievements. Express to your children that you have faith in them, even when things don’t go as planned. Tell them often that you love them and believe in them.
As a parent, providing a loving role model for your children as they develop coping skills is important. Help them understand that disappointments are a natural part of life and that feeling sad, angry, or frustrated is okay. Guide them as they work through their feelings and offer encouragement. Ultimately, this will help them become resilient adults capable of dealing with the ups and downs of life.
