Teaching Courage to Your Kids

Every child will face moments that require courage: standing up to a bully, trying something new, admitting they were wrong, doing what's right when it's unpopular. How they respond in those moments depends largely on whether courage has been cultivated in them. This is a father's work. Your kids need you to teach them what courage looks like and help them practice it in increasing doses.

Courage is built through experience, not just instruction. You can't lecture bravery into your kids. You have to help them do brave things.

How Courage Develops

• Graduated exposure: Small brave steps that build to bigger ones
• Modeling: Watching you do hard things despite fear
• Encouragement: Being cheered on when facing challenges
• Recovery: Learning to get back up after failure
• Named identity: Hearing "You are brave" forms self-concept

Kids aren't born brave or cowardly. They become what they practice. Every time they do something hard and survive, their capacity for courage grows. Your job is to give them those opportunities.

Building Courage Practically

Let them struggle: Don't rescue them from every challenge. Appropriate struggle builds strength.

Celebrate effort: Praise the attempt, not just the outcome.

Talk about your own fears: Let them see that courage isn't fearlessness.

Create safe risks: Activities that feel scary but have real support.

Practice saying hard things: Role-play difficult conversations.

When They're Afraid

Don't dismiss their fear or shame them for it. Fear is natural. The question is what they do with it. Help them name the fear, acknowledge it's real, and then take the next small step anyway. That's how courage grows: not by eliminating fear but by acting in spite of it.

Your Action Steps

This week: Identify one small way each child could practice courage.

This month: Share with your kids about a time you had to be brave.

This quarter: Plan an experience that will stretch your kids' courage in a supported way.