Even if we wish they were, our children will never be immune from the setbacks and failures inherent in life. These setbacks could be experienced by our children very early on, whether they be in the form of friendship dramas, academic pressure, or internal self-doubt. Getting back up after a setback is what we call resilience. Resilience is therefore an important skill to teach our children. In this episode of Chatabout Children™, we bring in author Michelle Mitchell to talk to us about how parents can raise resilient children.

Michelle Mitchell is an award-winning speaker, author, and educator who has incorporated years of grassroots experience into her books. After leaving her profession as a primary school teacher, Michelle focused on helping teenagers, particularly teenage girls, learn vital life skills to support them while at school. Her latest book, Everyday Resilience: Helping Kids Handle Friendship Drama, Academic Pressure, and the Self-Doubt of Growing Up, tackles the very interesting topic of teaching resilience to children and teenagers, and we ask her to talk more about this subject in this episode.

Key Learnings: 
- How Michelle transitioned from being a primary school teacher to teaching kids how to be resilient. 
- Michelle explains “Resilience is the capacity to thrive regardless of the circumstances’ and shares the importance and challenge of connecting with your child.
- The seven characteristics of a resilient child
- She shares some strategies on helping children develop resilience in their everyday lives, for both girls and boys. 
- Addressing a child’s “I can’t” mindset
- Teaching why it’s okay for kids to start doing something poorly.
-We discuss perfectionism in kids.

Michelle says to parents and educators - It’s all about connection. Connecting with our kids is vital. Kids need the loving support of adults in their life so that they are not afraid to take risks. In replace of being connected, sometimes we over-parent kids, whereas we really need to be focusing on connection and allowing our children to fail.

So, sit back and enjoy this episode of the Chatabout Children Podcast with Sonia Bestulic as she interviews Michelle Mitchell.

Listen to the original episode here.

Links:
Chatabout Children
Flourish for Mums by Sonia Bestulic
Michelle Michell
Follow @michellemitchellspeaker on Instagram