Building Your Child's Self Esteem

Teach your children how to find joy in their small accomplishments. It is not external things or goods that bring self satisfaction or contribute to a child's self image. It is the actual completion of a task, activity or goal. We all know how good we feel when we have successfully completed a task. The more successful tasks or activities that children successfully complete, whether they be academic or extracurricular, the better they will feel about themselves, and it is this sense of self-confidence that they will take with them into adulthood. Give honest encouragement and praise, but only where it is due. Make sure the task is age-appropriate and reasonably within their capability. Support them with encouragement, but teach them persistence and follow through. Give them an example of a task that you have worked through and successfully completed. Make sure you tell them about your setbacks and trials and errors. They need to know that making mistakes is just part of the learning process. Quality tasks take time and effort. Children need to know this in our instant-on rush, rush culture. Start a record of all their ongoing successes. When they feel insecure or start to doubt their ability, bring out the success book. We all need to review our accomplishments once in a while.