MR says: No one likes to admit they were wrong, and sometimes as parents we are afraid to lose face. But not owning our mistakes can often be far more damaging.
For whatever reason, many parents feel that they cannot apologize to their children. Perhaps they feel that they will “lose face” by acknowledging imperfection. Maybe they see nothing wrong with their behavior or feel that it’s the child’s fault (“Look what you made me do!”). The fact is, we’re all human and all of us make mistakes, especially as parents. Failing to apologize and to acknowledge error does far more harm than good. Here’s four reasons why owning your mistakes to your children is a very, very good thing.
- You’ll earn their respect. Think of anyone in your life who’s “never wrong” or regularly shifts blame for their behavior to someone else. Do you respect that person? Likely not, or at least not as much as the person who can say “I was wrong. I made a mistake. How can I make it right?”