How to Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem

As a parent, you want to do right by your children. You want to raise strong and independent kids who become strong and independent adults. In order to make this a reality, you’ll need to build up your child’s self-esteem. The way your children feel about their abilities will greatly affect how they face risks and challenges in the future. Here are a few great tips you can use to help build your child’s self-esteem.

Don’t Yell

If you’re a parent, chances are you’ve yelled a time or two at your children. Yelling isn’t usually a conscious decision, but is more of an impulse when something is going right. Although a stern voice is definitely OK to use with your children, you should refrain from yelling for more than one reason. Yelling is an angry impulse that can greatly damage your child’s self-esteem. Each time you yell, you make your children feel fear and resentment. This can eventually lead to your children feeling like they deserve to be yelled at, which lowers their self-esteem and self-worth.  Check out these fab tips for help with learning How to Get Kids to Listen (Without Yelling!)

Hand Out Meaningful Compliments

Handing out compliments to your children will help boost their self-esteem. When you hand out compliments to them, make sure that the compliment actually means something. Let your kids know when they do a good job at something or when they make a good choice. This will help your kids understand that the things they do are meaningful, effectively building their self-esteem.

Find Out What Your Child is Good At

You’ll also want to find out what your child is good at and use that to help build their self-esteem. If your child is athletic, enrol them in sports. If they’re good at music, let them take singing or piano lessons. The successes your child has in these areas will help them to build their self-esteem, giving them something that they can be proud of.

Don’t Obsess About Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes, including yourself. Obsessing about the mistakes that your children make can cause them to have low self-esteem. This includes holding their mistakes against them, constantly bringing up how they did something wrong. You might not mean to do this, but you are when you say such things as, “Why don’t you ever listen?” or “You never do this right.” Instead, forgive and forget when it comes to your child’s mistake, even if they’ve spilt their juice for the fifth time that day.

Building your child’s self-esteem is important to your child’s success in life. What are some ways you build your child’s self-esteem?

Elizabeth Lampman

Elizabeth Lampman is a coffee-fuelled Mom of 2 girls and lives in Hamilton, Ontario. She enjoys travelling, developing easy recipes, crafting, taking on diy projects, travelling and saving money!