mental health, as well as benefiting her relationships and social skills. As her parent, helping her develop and maintain positive self-esteem is vital to her development and overall happiness and success. Below we explore a few easy ways that you can promote high self-esteem in your child.
Let him know he is loved. A big part of having high self-esteem is feeling wanted and loved. Physically showing him love, such as by giving hugs, is just as important as verbally telling him. Letting him know you love him and are proud of him on a daily basis will help set a good foundation for positive self-esteem. Be more positive and criticize carefully. Your daily goal should be to say more positive things to your child then negative. Somedays that may be harder to do than others, but keeping a mostly positive attitude will benefit everyone. When you need to discipline him, make sure to explain that you disagree with his behavior or action, not as a person. NEVER call him names, belittle, or compare him to someone else. Spend time with her. As a parent, you are busy, but making sure to spend some one-on-one time with her everyday shows her that she is important to you and you value the time you spend together.
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Encourage and support his interests. Whether it is sports, art, or building with blocks, supporting and encouraging what interests him, shows him that his feelings and likes are important to you. Enroll him in a class or team so he can explore his interest with other kids. Let her know everyone makes mistakes. Nobody is perfect, and it is important that you stress this to your child. If she expects perfection in everything she does, she is setting herself up for failure as well as poor self-esteem, by thinking she is never good enough. Lead by example. Children learn a lot of things by watching the people in their lives. What you do, and how you view the world, as a parent affects how he will. The saying “do as I say, not as I do” means absolutely nothing to children. If he sees that you have a good attitude about life and high self-esteem, he is more likely to follow suit.
Sources: SelfEsteemGateway.com | Education.com | SpecialChildren.About.com Promoting Positive Self-Esteem in Your Child Shandy Marso, Contributor
