If you don’t see your self-worth, you will always choose people who don’t see it either, When your self-esteem rises, your life follows. “Mandy Hale”.
Have you wondered why is it that some kids are self-confident…open, willing and ready to experiment… …while others are almost paralyzed with self-doubt?
Why is it that some kids have high self-esteem……while others often feel like they are “not good enough” or that something is “wrong” with them?
Self-esteem is all about how much one feels valued, loved and accepted by others and how much one values, loves, and accepts oneself. Children with a healthy self-esteem do better in school and make friends easily. They tend to build better relationships with others and can resist peer pressure. They feel happier and find it easier to deal with mistakes, disappointments, and failures. They tend to be generally optimistic. However, kids with low self-esteem can find challenges to be sources of major anxiety and frustration. They think poorly of themselves and have a hard time finding solutions to problems. They tend to have self-critical thoughts such as “I’m not good enough” or “I can’t do anything well”. When a new challenge is presented, their immediate response might be “I can’t” or “why try if I will fail…”.
A healthy self-esteem is a skill that can be developed for life. I hope these tips will support you to foster a healthy self-esteem in your child:
– Be a positive role model: Nurture your own self-esteem and your child will have a great role model. When you catch yourself thinking in a negative way or being too self-critical and self-judgmental, counter it by saying something positive about yourself.
– Be impeccable with your word: It sounds very simple but it is very powerful. A child mind is like a fertile ground where opinions, ideas, thoughts are being embedded. Always use positive and supportive talk and be careful what you say.
– Praise for achievements and efforts and show love: Always give positive feedback no matter how small or big the effort or achievement is, without overdoing it. Acknowledge your child’s feelings, reward the choice made, and encourage your child to make the right choice again next time. Just be proud of the efforts and not the results.
– Help your child to get involved in constructive experiences such as activities that encourage cooperation rather than competition. Let your child get in touch with his talents and show pride when he develops a new skill.
Parents, teachers and extended family influence the ideas we develop about ourselves especially in childhood. Help your child to know that everyone has unique gifts and talents that they bring to the world and that their own uniqueness is not “better than” or “less than” others, It is just different.
Happy reading 
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