How well we deal with the challenges and disappointments in life comes down to something known as ‘resilience’ and the environment we create for our children helps to nurture this important trait.

Top 5 Tips

1. Strong relationships are the key to building resilience. We all need people we can count on and trust to help us through.

2. Be your child’s go-to person. We want our children to feel like they can tell us anything, even things we might not want to hear.

3. You can help your children do this by asking them open-ended questions from an early age. For example, ‘Tell me your side of the story’, ‘What do you think needs to happen next?’ and ‘How can I help you figure this out?’

4. Building resilience isn’t about taking a hands-off approach. Children thrive in that middle ground where they have warm, loving parents and caregivers who set reasonable limits and who allow them to negotiate and to discuss and to help make decisions in a gradually increasing way.

5. Meaningful praise develops self-esteem and internal resilience.