While the word “confidence” may often be associated with negative words like egotistical, the truth is that confidence is a positive thing. Helping your children improve their self-worth can help them in all sorts of ways, from their interpersonal relationships to how well they succeed at work.
In order to be successful children need to believe that they’re capable of achieving all that they set out to do. If you’re a parent looking for ways to build successful, thriving, and self-confident children, then look no further than these tips.
Create a Routine
Statistics show that the most confident kids are the ones that have a strong sense of stability. One of the best ways to establish stability in a child’s life is through routine. Create a daily routine that consists of everything from the time they take a shower, to the time they read their nighttime story, and you can even incorporate rituals like going to see their grandparents in an assisted living facility. The more that they can anticipate and predict what will happen in their day-to-day lives, the greater sense of security they’ll have and confidence that everything is going to be OK.
Encourage Independence
Even though our first instinct may be to help a child work through an issue, the best thing you can do is encourage a child to figure things out by themselves. Encourage autonomous and independent thinking, and they’ll carry on this mentality well into their adult years.
If a child doesn’t know how to solve things on their own from a young age, then they’ll find themselves insecure and unsure about how to solve problems without their parents. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to give them guidance once in a while but don’t do everything for them.
Let Kids Be Kids
All too often we become fixated on children being well-behaved. However, the more we discourage children from being children, the more inadequate we can cause them to feel. Allow them to be silly and laugh once in a while. Let them jump around and express their youthful side. The fewer expectations you have of them to be something that they’re not, the more confident they’ll feel about who they are.
Praise Them
Unfortunately, where a lot of parents get it wrong is repeating the patterns of their own childhood. They critique their children and tell them where they have room for improvement; however they forget to praise them when they do something right.
Praise can go an incredibly long way, and statistics show that it can be much more effective than criticism. Give your child plenty of affirmations and encouragement. Tell them their haircut looks great even though it may not look great in your eyes. Save the criticisms for moments that really matter like their schoolwork, and don’t sweat the small stuff.
Spend Time Together
The more time you spend with your child, the more valued they’ll feel. If they feel ignored or put on the back burner for more important tasks, then they’ll start to adopt this way of thinking. They’ll believe that they’re not as important as your job or other social obligations. One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is our energy and attention and in turn, they will thrive.
