Teaching Your Child How to Overcome Obstacles

**Collaborative Post**

AD: Obstacles are something many of us will face in day-to-day life whether you are an adult or child, they are part of life, and learning to overcome them quickly is super beneficial. Of course, obstacles come in all different shapes and sizes and could be things that are simple to solve or something things that might require a little more time and effort. Either way, we must learn to overcome them in life to proceed. Obstacles can be tricky for children to manage, but there are a lot of ways you can help your own children manage their expectations and learn to accept difficulties in their life. The earlier children can learn how to overcome obstacles or not let them stand in their way, the better and more adaptable children will be to handle them. 

As recommended by this preschool in Surrey, we take a look at the different ways you can help your child learn to navigate different issues.

Role play problem solving

Being able to solve problems makes your child know what comes with encountering obstacles. Having a series of ways to role-play and naturally work on problems that come up will give your child a lot more confidence in handling things on their own. Role-playing with children of a similar age or slightly older even will allow children to also see how others handle different situations and can learn from this too, There are a lot of ways you can do this, even from a toddler age. For example, dropping toys on the floor, or spilling food, allows you to show your child what happens when things go wrong and what they can do to rectify them. You could even demonstrate and then offer them the chance to help you rectify the problem that way you can get them involved too. 

Have your child make plenty of decisions for themselves

Giving your child independence is what makes them more confident in their own abilities. If there’s a lot that they can feel in charge of then it’s good practice for your child. There will be plenty of opportunities for your child’s skills to truly develop by letting them have their own responsibilities. These could be choices as simple as what clothes they wear, what fruit or crisps, etc they place in their lunch box. You could set aside a certain day a week or month and allow your child to pick what you do that day or pick an activity. Giving them the power to make positive choices will build their confidence in making more choices as they move forward. One particular way my children like to be independent is by buying things with their own pocket money, making the decision of what to buy, and then actually paying for it with their saved money. And it also means that your child is having their first chance at handling issues in their own way.

Work through problems as they happen

When there are a lot of issues happening in your child’s life you must be there to break down each problem and work on them together. Children are not born with these skills, they are learned, and even as adults we are still learning some things. Instead of getting angry or fed up, you can work on your child’s skills in a way that works for them, understanding that they are still very much learning and how you handle these situations can alter how they look at things. You can also process these things on a level that your child understands - with the different learning methods and ways children learn this will give your child the best chance at building their skills.

Hopefully, these tips can help you teach your child some ways that they can tackle obstacles that might head their way as they grow up. Remember nobody is perfect and we are all, always learning so there is no quick fix and nobody knows it all, we all make mistakes, it's how we pick ourselves up after it and learn from it that makes the difference. 

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