Parenting: Admitting Mistakes

Admitting mistakes are not just for the young. Okay, it's even harder to acknowledge that we need to do this more with each other, but have you bought about doing this with your child?

Being vulnerable comes with admitting mistakes. We think we have to be the constant model for our children, but unfortunately we take it too far sometimes. It should also be taught that admitting mistakes is a teaching as well. Not just the good things that we do are they learning from anyway, right? Those "little pictures have big ears," remember?

Admitting when we are wrong or have made a bad choice which culminates in a mistake teaches our children empathy, compassion and even what the "right" thing is to do. Remember the principles of your family? When they learn empathy and compassion from home with you there is a gift here. They take the gift of compassion and empathy with them all through their lives.

Apologies come hard for some of us. But when you do them with "little people" they feel important. "I must be pretty important for Mommy to say, 'I'm sorry' to me." It also allows for mistakes to happen and shows them how to move on, but with integrity. You have taken the time to apologize, maybe even explain yourself and show that it's not the end of the world.