PW invited parents of JBCN International School, Oshiwara, Andheri (W), Mumbai to share insights on how they teach their children to be graceful losers

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going is an inspirational quote that my boys — ten-year-old Ariv (class V), and seven-year-old Akul (class II) — never tire of hearing from us on a regular basis. To maintain a never-say-die attitude in life, we teach them to focus on the 4Ps — passion, persistence, patience and positivity. We also make it a point to talk about failure being the best teacher, a humbling experience and life’s lesson to work harder.” — Gunjan Sumit Mehra, co-founder and director, the Green Umbrella (tGU) Investment Advisory Pvt. Ltd

“I must admit it’s never been easy to accept failure in our lives and workplaces. But over the years, we have conditioned ourselves to learn from them and invest extra effort to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. My five-year-old daughter Sreenidhi (senior KG) is perhaps too young to understand the importance/implications of success and failure. We have taught Sreenidhi to be hardworking, sincere and focused in everything she does without thinking about outcomes. However, we make it a point to tell her stories about famous personalities from every walk of life including sports who became successful after overcoming innumerable failures and defeats.” — Subhalaxmi Iyer, entrepreneur, Quillberry — Quilling and Resin Artworks

“My boys — eight-year-old Anush (class III) and five-year-old Yohaan (Sr Kg) — love and live sport. We have since enrolled them for tennis, football and swimming classes. At a recent swimming meet, Yohaan won a silver medal but was clearly disappointed to have missed the gold. We ignored his temper tantrums and decided to show the boys some exclusive video footage of tennis legend Roger Federer in his early days and how gracefully he would accept defeat by congratulating the winner with a smile. I think the message has finally impacted Yohaan. I saw him shaking hands with the gold medal winner from the swimming competition the other day.” — Sheetal Mehra Yadav, teacher, JBCN International School.

“In this competitive world, we believe children must quickly learn to take stock and bounce back from failure. Our seven-year-old son Yugveer (class II) is already aware of competition and copes with it patiently. Basic respect for elders and team members by using magic words like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are small lessons we have taught him since childhood which we believe go a long way. Moreover we have always valued his sincere efforts to complete a task rather than ponder about its outcome. When Yugveer is disappointed, he diverts his attention to art and craft which is an anger management technique we have taught him.” — Mrinal Gadhvi Charan, communications manager, JBCN Education