Signs Your Teen Is Struggling With 'FOMU' (Or 'Fear Of Messing Up')

“Exam results hit a nerve for a reason. For teenagers, everything is tied up in who they are, where they belong, and what comes next.”

With A-level results day here and GCSE results day inching closer, the tension in many homes is high.

For an increasing number of young people, the anxiety goes beyond pre-results nerves. Welcome to FOMU: not ‘fear of missing out’, but ‘fear of messing up’.

Fear of messing up is not something teenagers are born with. Babies and toddlers are brilliant, relentless failers. They topple, stumble and babble their way through thousands of mistakes without a flicker of shame, because no one has yet told them that failing is something to dread.

That changes, though. Somewhere along the way, a telling look from a teacher, a disappointed sigh over a less-than-perfect mark, or the sting of coming second instead of first teaches children that mistakes are something to hide, not learn from.

By the time young people reach their GCSE and A-Level years, many have spent a decade absorbing the message that winners are celebrated while those who fall short are to........

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