Resiliency in children

The life of a military spouse hasn’t always been easy for me. I often wondered about the effects on my children. Over the years we have moved multiple times and my children have had to start at new schools, make new friends , then find their niche and then we would uproot them again.


The girls are very resilient when we move. I have often admired how they can step into the new state and have just as many friends as they had before. I feel that having caring relationships with their family and friends who are also part of the military community has helped tremendously. Even with the losses they suffer when we move, they are able to overcome and embrace their new situation.


There are many ways to help build resilience. A few of them are to accept that change is a part of life. To move forward toward goals and to look for opportunities for self discovery are also factors that make a person more resilient. Building resilience is important and by introducing theses factors by way of modeling is very important to young children.


Many times I have heard the saying” they are young and will bounce back fast”. I think that younger children have opportunities to practice their emerging resiliency. It is important for them to be able to have the skills that will guide them into adulthood and beyond. As a parent or caregiver you can help them learn resiliency by allowing them to see you cope and accept change in productive ways.


Resiliency is not hard to find in children and adults; it is in fact very common. People overcome things from illness, loss of a job, to death every day. Resiliency is not a trait that you have or don’t have; it is the way you think, the way you deal with the events in your life. Everyone can work on developing a more resilient personality if they want to.