Frustration tolerance is the ability to sit in the space between not-knowing and knowing, or between starting and finishing, which means we really want to build our child’s skills for coping with hard feelings rather than building skills for finding success. This way, our kids can feel more at home while working hard, before they’ve reached success. But doing this starts with a mindset shift on the part of the parents. Tell yourself, “I don’t have to teach my kid how to put his shirt on smoothly . . . I need to teach my kid how to tolerate when it doesn’t go on right.
