Parenting is often described as the hardest job a person will ever have and there are no guidebooks or manuals to make the journey any easier.  It is only natural to want to shield a child from the disappointment of failure or of “doing badly”.  But is shielding them the best alternative?  Life is always unpredictable and it is true that no matter how prepared we are for something, there can always be an unwanted surprise that pulls the rug out from under us.  When children learn that what they do is good from the beginning and that they are not capable of failing,  the consequences of failure later on in life only serve to hurt them more.  When they skip the process of growth and the tools to work through a project, train for a sporting event, or practice for a music concert, the lesson of falling and getting up becomes that much harder later on in life.  We are all humans, and therefore, by design, imperfect, but it is overcoming our short comings and transforming the worst moments into opportunities to grow what can grant us the most satisfaction.  The next time you see your child struggle and not do as well as she or he hoped, see if there is a chance that they can learn and grow from the experience.  Is it time to learn new study skills? Train harder at a sport? Or, maybe take a moment for self-reflection.  Making the best of a bad situation or overcoming obstacles is a life-long skill that, if we begin early on, will help bring us that much closer to success.