It’s never easy to know exactly how to help your kids learn from life experiences.
Fair to say, kids don’t come with instruction manuals, but when we catch someone doing a darn good job at it, we’re open to taking notes!
Robert has been teaching his 5-year-old daughter Aubrin to skateboard, and built a mini half pipe for her to learn on. After she crashed hard on the ramp during a lesson, Robert reacted how all parents would have hoped to. He communicates with a perfect blend of empathy, encouragement and empowerment, which gave his daughter exactly what she needed to tackle her fears and persevere.
Watch it here;
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Robert explained his thinking behind the way he responded to Aubrin’s fall:
“Trying something new can be scary but re-trying something after slamming can be terrifying.
I had to re-gain her trust and she needed to re-establish her confidence after this slam and it was a tough but beautiful rollercoaster experience.
This is one of the biggest psychological battles we face as humans, because once that negative experience has made its home in our brain it’s very hard to get it out.
I know from intense personal experience that a bad fall can have long lasting [psychological] effects and truly believe, that when possible, it’s best to get back up and try it again with the goal being to end the session with a positive experience; to not have that negative memory ruminating in your head until the next time you return to try.”
Beautiful insight and advice. Whether we were raised by gentle, supportive parents or the opposite, we can all recognise effective parenting when we see it.
