I have a student who has been playing an instrument for a week.
He came to class completely disheartened and said, “My uncle said I’m never going to be able to play this.”
Don’t be that uncle.
Of course the kid is struggling and sounds terrible right now. He’s been playing for a week. Instruments are hard.
Build them up instead of putting them down.
(And deal with whatever baggage you’re carrying that makes putting down your automatic response.)