Dealing with Frustration

Today’s parents and educators have a difficult task ahead of them. And I say of today because it wasn’t until the early twentieth century that anyone paid very much attention to children. No one was too concerned about how the way children were being brought up would affect the kind of grownup people they would become. We now know that the early formative years are very important, and that the attention, education and care we give our children will be decisive for their future as balanced, well-adjusted adults.

Among the many things that we need to teach them is how to deal with frustration. I am not a teacher, psychologist or any kind of specialist, so what I am expressing in this post is simply my opinion, obtained from my observations of children and adults around me. It is understandable for a child to become frustrated when things don’t turn out the way they want them to, but it is up to us to teach them how to deal with this feeling and how to find solutions to their problems. I have many times seen parents who, in order to avoid a long discussion or a tantrum, will simply give in to the child’s demands, or who, at the faintest sign of a conflict charge in, “sword in hand”, to solve the problem their little one is facing (evidently I’m referring to conflicts and problems suited to their age and that could be solved by themselves).

We should really stop for a minute and think about the number of frustrations they will have to face throughout their lives: achievements that won’t be recognized, jobs they won’t get, things they might want to have and won’t be able to get, unrequited loves, sacrifices they’ll have to make along the way for whatever reasons… the list is long. And that is why they need to have the tools that will allow them to have a positive attitude in life, to find their way around the obstacles and to find the best in any given situation. There are many circumstances that could generate great frustration and which might surprise you and end up giving you great satisfaction. It all depends on the way you look at things and of our attitude when facing the many situations that don’t turn out as we would have wanted them to.