Welcome to another parenting tales from the sofa where, as always, I am joined by Beckie Whitehouse of Be Confident Coaching to share her wisdom and advice. This week we are discussing how we can help to improve and create good self esteem among our children so they can feel good about themselves and all that they do, no matter how small it is.
What do we mean by self esteem? Self esteem can be linked to confidence although it is slightly different and can be a very fine line. Self esteem is about how your child looks, views and feel about himself. Whereas confidence is external and can be viewed from the outside, having good (or even low) self esteem is held internally.
So, how can we enourage good self self esteem? Here are a few tips on how you can build your child up and how he/she view themselves.
- Let your child know that we all make mistakes! None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes …. maybe, sometimes ;-)
- Praise your child for the things they have done; putting shoes away or doing well at a project in school. Not all praise has to be for big things, the small things are just as important and significant.
- Encouraging other members of the family to say something nice to each other at mealtimes; “I like mum as she takes the time to play with me”. Encourage each family member to take turns. Bigging ourselves up is not something that we are comfortable with in our culture but should most definitely be encouraged ;-)
- Encourage your child to say something good about herself
- Teach humility and recognising that other people have different strengths
These are just a few of the things that we have touched on, listen to our hangout to find out what other examples we have given:
Is your child a self esteem hero? Do they feel good about themselves? What do you do to encourage this?
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!
The Reading Residence
Tuesday 18th of August 2015
Some great tips here, useful reminders, too. I think it boosts all of us to do this, children and parents alike.
Mum of One
Tuesday 18th of August 2015
You are so right, I think in Britain we almost finding receiving compliments embarrassing and as such maybe praise less than we should. Thanks so much for sharing with this week's #pinitparty lovely lady x
Neil
Friday 14th of August 2015
Hi Helen,
Great Post! All children deserve to hold themselves in high esteem - that is, to respect who they are and what they are capable of. You made a very valid point - None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes.
However, there's a significant misunderstanding of what self-esteem is today. Too much of the rhetoric in our culture has put self-esteem in the category of false compliments.