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Informed Families Catalyst

How to Be Your Child’s Cheerleader

Posted by Informed Families on April 2, 2023 at 7:34 PM

Our children face challenges of one degree or another every day of their lives. It’s part of growing up. It’s up to you to help your child persevere in the tasks they will need to accomplish throughout their lives.

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They need to learn how to read, how to write, how to dress themselves, how to get along with others, how to drive, how to cook, how to hit a baseball, how to make friends, how to use a smartphone, how to make a bed . . . the list of things they need to learn as they move toward becoming adults is practically endless.

It’s inevitable that they will have trouble mastering some of these tasks at first. That’s where parents come in. 

It’s up to you to help your child persevere in the tasks they will need to accomplish throughout their lives.

So here are a few ideas.

Frame Failure Properly

If you can help your child change their mindset from “I can’t do it” to “I can’t do it yet,” they learn the valuable lesson of persistence.

“Failing can be reframed as trying, practicing, and putting in the effort—and it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Jaime M. Howard, Ph.D., and Director at the Child Mind Institute told PBS Kids for Parents.

Make it clear that no one does things right the first time out. Don’t hover, and don’t try to take over, but watch for signs of frustration as they’re learning something new, and remind them of other tasks they eventually mastered.

Praise the Effort

When they’re sticking with the challenge, “let them know that, win or lose, we are proud of them for their effort,” Kenneth Barish, Ph.D., and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology at Weill-Cornell Medical College told PBS Kids for Parents.

And be sure to let them know you think they can accomplish difficult things. You don’t actually have to perform cheers on the sidelines, but remind them often they can’t succeed at anything if they don’t try, and that you are proud of them for their perseverance.

Let Us Help

Our innovative Family Table Time kit has more ideas on how to help provide encouragement to kids, along with other topics like study habits, community service, and choices. 

Each kit contains:

-an agenda for family meetings
-character-based conversation starters
-quick, easy, and healthy family recipes
-suggestions for fun family physical activities

Remember, you can try Family Table Time for four weeks completely free!

Topics: parenting, marijuana legalization, marijuana, teenagers, teens, cannabis

About Us

We teach people how to say no to drugs and how to make healthy choices. To reduce the demand for drugs, Informed Families has focused its efforts on educating and mobilizing the community, parents and young people in order to change attitudes. In this way we counteract the pressures in society that condone and promote drug and alcohol use and abuse. The organization educates thousands of families annually about how to stay drug and alcohol free through networking and a variety of programs and services .

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