Failure is Great Training

(Photo: My daughter charging down the hill for her high school ski team.)

Being prepared when our kids fail is an amazing teaching opportunity.

It teaches what comfort and shielding (e.g., Helicopter Parenting) never will.

Every time a kid misses the shot, bombs the test, forgets the lines, gets cut from the team, or faceplants in front of their friends, life is handing them a gift.

A messy, humbling, priceless rep. If we swoop in to erase that moment, we don’t save them. We steal the lesson.

Think about that a minute…

I learned this in the Navy SEALs, and I’ve watched it play out at home raising my own kids.

You don’t build confidence by talking about confidence.

You build it the old-fashioned way…

Try, fail, reflect, adjust, try again.

Succeed.

That loop is how competence is born.

My kids didn’t become strong because things were easy. They became strong because they learned they could survive hard things.

So when your kid falls apart after a loss, don’t rush to turn it into a motivational Tony Robbins poster.

Let them feel it. Sit beside them, stay steady, and let the sting do its work.

Then, when the smoke clears, share your own story of failure, and help them ask the only question that matters…“What did this teach me?”

That’s where resilience lives, not in avoiding failure, but in learning to live through it and come back stronger.