7 Ways to Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem: Self-Esteem is a very important aspect of any individual’s life. Having low self-esteem can have a drastic and negative impact on our lives. It can degrade a person’s personality in his/her own eyes. Which will eventually result in dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Many may think self-esteem isn’t a relevant topic for children. But self-esteem isn’t a skill or trait that can be learnt in some personality development class. It’s a mindset and way of living which one needs to develop. And there’s no better time to empower your kid with this mindset in their childhood.
7 Ways to Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem
Don’t Spoon-feed
The first step towards developing self-esteem in your children is to stop spoon feeding them. Parents generally tend to spoon feed their kids to make sure nothing goes wrong. The intention is not wrong, as the parents wish to make sure that everything goes well. You need to put a stop on this and step back. Give your child some breathing space and opportunity to develop & grow different life skills.
Start giving your child some responsibilities
After stepping back and giving your child some space and opportunity, you need to give them some responsibilities. Don’t shy away from giving your children small responsibilities. As it will only help them to improve and grow in certain aspects of life. As a parent you can also track your child’s potential & capabilities by seeing their performance and intent while performing the assigned responsibilities. Just remember one thing: don’t be rigid, be flexible with your choices of responsibilities.
Stay away from the act of insulting or humiliating your child
Many parents think that insulting a child will kickstart some kind of fire and drive inside the child. Which will eventually lead the kid to do unbelievable and unexpected things in life. While there are some instances where an insult has worked as a driving force for some individuals and they have achieved success because of the humiliation. But using this method is nothing more than foolishness, as there are high chances that this will backfire and will create a lifelong anger or trauma inside your child’s mind.
Let your kids pick their own choices
Don’t be too bossy or protective. At times you need to give your children a bit of freedom. Simple things like letting them pick their own choices like letting them choose their clothes, food, games or outdoor activities can also work wonders in creating self-esteem in your kids. In this case you need to play smart, and don’t hesitate to stop your kid if he/she is becoming too arrogant or demanding.
Calculated Risk Taking
Taking a full on risk with kids can be a very risky venture. However, you can still take calculated and pre-planned risks. Like letting your child plan his daily schedule or preferred food for a week. For example if you allow your child to watch their favorite shows according to their will & wish for a week. The worst case scenario would be that they will be watching tv or screen the whole day and won’t focus on studies or outdoor sports. But this will also give you a better idea about your kid’s current status and progress.
Create real life learning experiences
Focus on creating learning experiences for your child. There are many ways to do so. From Books, stories, incidents to movies. But the best way of creating a learning experience for your kid is using real life experiences. Using real life incidents like the mistakes or good things done by your child. You can use your child’s mistakes or past experiences to demonstrate the importance of life skills and values. This will give the child a better understanding of the life lessons.
Act as a guiding figure
When you are investing so much time and energy in your child, you can afford to make silly mistakes. Putting too many restrictions or being too protective will hamper your child’s personality development and growth. Whereas even the maturest or smartest of the kids is still a child. A normal tendency seen in many parents is that they either give their children a free hand or put too many restrictions on them. You need to understand that as a parent you need to balance things and act as a guiding figure.
Also Read: 10 Effective Ways to Be More Mindful at Work
