Resilience refers to the ability to successfully manage life, and adapt to change and stressful events in healthy and constructive ways. It is about the capacity to bounce back from positive and negative life experiences. To develop emotional and psychological buoyancy in childhood gives our kids a better prospect of being able to thrive as adults.

Building resilience is a vital ingredient in our parenting. It is a process that directs our interactions with our children as we strengthen their ability to meet life’s challenges and pressures with confidence and perseverance. I have been creating resources to build resilience in children since 2007, when I developed the 10 Resilience Building Blocks for Children Birth–12 years of age.

This model, which became the central focus of my book, Real Kids in an Unreal World, can help build healthy self-esteem and strengthen their resilience. These building blocks show the different areas that a parent, school or community can focus on in order to build resilience for life. I’ve also done a smaller version of this book for folks looking for a more condensed summary: Building Children’s Resilience: One Building Block at a Time 

And we’ve done an episode of the Parental As Anything podcast on Raising a Resilient Child too, which is worth a listen.

Key products

Print & eBook
Print & eBook