Moms Talk Q&A: How Do You Teach Your Child To Deal With Failure?

Each week the council will answer a question on parenthood posed to them by readers or another member of council.

This week, the Moms Council discusses how to teach children to deal with failure.

When we're bombarded with messages like "Go big or go home" and "second place is the first loser," anything short of total success is often thought of as a failure.

There also are those who would reward effort with "participation trophies," regardless of outcome. So how do you teach kids to keep a proper perspective?

Kim Zannetti: We have always taught and expected our children to give their personal best. However, in life there are going to be times when your personal best isn't good enough. I think that if children know they did all that they could, then failure becomes a little easier to live with.

If you truly have given your personal best, then that would not be settling for mediocrity. I think it is so important for kids to know how to deal with failure.  Today's society is constantly sending the message that "everybody is a winner."  Working with high school students, I think we do them a HUGE injustice. In the real world, everybody doesn't always get a trophy or a first place ribbon. There is a second place. Sometimes you do finish last.

The real "winners" are the kids that can pick themselves up after a failure, learn from it, move on, and get it right the next time.