BE A RESILIENT PARENT

A parent’s resilience serves as a template for a child to see how to deal with challenges, how to understand their own emotions.

As parents, we want our children to be emotionally resilient. Children who are able to handle life’s ups, downs and challenges. But parents’ ability to foster resilience in our children pivots a great pact on our own emotional resilience. Oftentimes, our society has unrealistic expectations of what childhood is really all about, part of it is this belief or misconception that we have that parenthood should be this amazing, blissful, perfect culmination of our hopes and dreams.

As a parent, challenges are part of your life. But sometimes, problems can overwhelm you and make you snap. Although we try our best to ensure that we face problems in life with composure, it's a wish that never comes true despite our best efforts. Therefore, we need to learn how to face challenges with courage, never give up, remain optimistic and adapt to every situation. Psychologists have labelled the quality that helps us do all the above as 'resilience'.

Arundhati Swamy, a child psychologist says, "When parents are resilient, the benefits are two-fold. First, resilient parents use their emotional strength to cope effectively not just with the pressures of routine tasks within the family, but also with the stresses of an unexpected setback or crisis. Resilience insulates them from snarky comments and destructive criticism, which could otherwise undermine their confidence as parents. Second, their children observe and absorb from them the essence of resilience - emotional control, grit, hard work and perseverance in the face of adversity. They are able to apply these strengths to their school work and other activities, setting themselves on the path to success."