Adrian Barich: Teaching kids how to deal with failure sets them up for success

Gather Perth’s good people, the barbecue of life: a little Dadvice time.

The subject of this week? To teach children to cope with failure.

Seems appropriate, right? Yesterday, 23 elite athletes and a small player who kidnapped (like me), coaches and club staff sat in MCG, exhausted, broken and confetti the other gang tried to smile politely.

Four million people watch on TV. About 100,000 on the ground. And it’s not a corner to hide.

Trust me, I was there.

It was 1991. Grand Final Day. West Coast Eagles vs Hawthorn. We became the best team all year. The first WA team in the VFL Grand Final. The whole WA continued us like a media puzzle in the Melbourne Cup that year.

And the explosion. The game is over. Dreams were shattered.

And let me tell you, for the players representing the club that day, I lose sting like anything else on the biggest day of your life. You don’t want to hear clichés. You don’t want a patter in the back. You want to crawl into a hole. But the moment you really find what you are doing.

And this is the lesson we need to try to transfer to our children.

Because failure is not a dirty word. It is not something that needs to be avoided or acts as if it exists. Failure is a part of life. Like the sausage in Bunnings.

Do you want to raise strong children? Don’t teach them to be afraid of failure. Teach them how to deal with them.

And let’s be honest, the kids hate losing. It doesn’t matter if Footy, Fortnite or School cross -country. They wear it. It hurts. And the job is to pass them through it.

You can start with this line: “Even legends work.”

At that time, maybe you tell them a story, probably a story that despises itself-when I was vapor in the midst of MCG, the ball jumped on the hard cricket field and passed over my head. My opponent gathered him and scored a goal.

Not less in football’s house. Real story. I still wake up thinking about it. Fortunately, there was no Instagram at the time, because it would be viral before getting on Pareh on a plane.

But that’s the point. Professionals (or semi -proz) even misunderstand. Everyone can spend a day. The best in the world is losing and not just once. They lose a lot. Michael Jordan, the biggest symbol of basketball, said: ım I missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I lost about 300 games. Twenty -six times, making game winning shots and missing. I failed in my life again and again. ”

This brings us to Brownlow Night.

Poor Nick Daicos. The look on his face said everything. You could almost hear his inner monologue: “Wait … I missed it again!”

Now I love Matt Rowell – the fight against Machine, built like a brick house, eats raw grass before a game – but no doubt I felt like Nick robbed. Three flat years amazing footy and still no medal.

But it’s happening, man.

Another lesson for these children: Sometimes you lose even when you do everything right. Sometimes the votes don’t go your way. Sometimes someone else gets a lane, the trophy and the moment. All you can do is smile and say “well done ((even if you want to turn the table).

And it’s okay. This is life.

Think of this grasshopper: failure is not the opposite of success, it is part of it.

You fall from the bike, you are coming back.

You burn the toast, you are still eating. . . Because you’re a father and fathers don’t spend toast.

You bomb an exam, you miss a shot, leave a capture, knock on the first round – and then see again next week and go again.

This is not about teaching your children to be good in losing. It’s about teaching them what to do with him.

Are they sullen? Give up? Are they throwing the supervisor into the room?

Or “Yes, this sucks, but I have another crack!” Do they say?

It does not come from gaining durability. It comes from losing well. This comes from learning how to get the kick, wipe your tears, and continue to move. Strong children you build this way. And strong people.

Next time, your young one is a loss, try this:

Do not say “no problem”. “I know this pain. But guess what happened? We didn’t finish it.”

Then take them to a Macca’s run. It works every time in my place.

Because at the end of the day, a footy game, life is long and failure? Failure is only a field of education for size.