Children are the prized possession of any parent. It is true the other way around as well. Parents are the first inspiration that a child looks upto. You are their world. They learn and do what you do not say. I am sure you have heard that you have to be the example and the role model of everything you want your children to learn. It certainly is true about confidence as well. Confidence is one of the greatest gifts that a child can receive from his parents. Let’s see what can you do to help your child raise his confidence:
1. Become Confident: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. There is no way around you being the role model for your child. If you want your child to have a great confidence then work on you having a great confidence. They will directly experience what a great confidence feels like. Start with you!
2. Provide Support: Appreciate the effort, even if your child loses. Your child’s journey of ups and downs is more precious and essential than only the successes. As a parent, you can learn to appreciate your child’s efforts towards achieving the goal irrespective of the outcome. When your child gets disheartened and is disappointed, you take the opportunity to teach him to cope with those feelings instead rushing to make things better immediately. Believe in your child and develop the faith in him that he can win over small goals that may ultimately lead him to achieve a more significant accomplishment.
3. Become Rolemodel: Among the other tips I have, the best thing you can do for your child to be confident is to be confident yourself. The best way to teach your child is to be the role model for him. If you exhibit confidence, he will learn to be confident.
4. Encourage Curiosity: A child’s interest to know everything is never-ending. Your child’s questions can be tiring, but it is best as a parent to keep answering those questions to help your child see the world better.
5. Teach Grit: Always remember, if we are interested in something, then only, we can adequately do that. The same theory applies to your child even. Let your child do whatever he is interested in, but do not pressurize him for that. Practice makes a man perfect, right. Hence, the more your child practices, the sooner he will gain improvement in that. Encourage him to work harder and keep trying. Your child will learn a healthy balance between winning and loosing.
6. Model Independence: If you are always behind him covering up all his mistakes or also if you are doing all the hard work for him and giving him everything on a platter, then your child will never be able to develop the capability to fight his own battle. He will never gain the self-confidence in himself to face all cumbersome situations. Hence, it is better; your child gets some B’s and C’s instead of straightaway getting an A or even an A+. Parental guidance is essential, but facing the situations on own is necessary as well.
You as a parent have to nurture your child to let him face both the good and bad of life.
I, Dr. Kaur, a licensed professional counselor, believe that a child who has low self-confidence will be hesitant to face the challenges and difficulties in life and will tend to run away from them because he is afraid of losing and is scared to disappoint his parents. This fear may, later on, stop him from having a flourishing career and a peaceful life.
Fear and discouragement are the enemies of confidence. Hence, as a parent, you must encourage your child and let him out in the open with the firm willpower to overcome difficult challenges that life has in store for him.
Note: The list is endless, but these are the basics which as parents, you can make use of to help your child develop into a confident human being. At the same time, as a parent, you must be aware as to where your child is heading to, and be able to guide him to the right and wrong. Also, private coaching, summer group programs, and counseling imparted by me can be of great help here at Living Excellence Today.
