7 Steps to build Confidence of Your Child

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What would you do if you find your growing child is losing confidence? Praise her minutest of actions or shower her with gifts that are actually not required?

However, that is not going to help much as the child will depend upon you to feel good about herself or maybe, she will consider herself above others which is not healthy either. So what all can be done that helps her stay confident?
                                 

Easy steps to build confidence in your child

Let her make choices

Avoid taking each and every decision on behalf of your kid. Let her decide what works best for her out of certain options. For example, a 10-year-old can be given a chance to decide what dress to buy for her birthday instead of telling her what will be good for her. That will boost her confidence a lot.

Let her follow her hobbies/ interests

Your child is interested in theatre or sports then let her join classes and help her to continue her passion. Even if it means rescheduling your day! This will develop her self-esteem and inspire her to accomplish what she started.

                                                                       

Let her have a say in family matters!

On occasions such as Christmas or New Year's party, ask kids to give their inputs concerning room decor, card making, menu, her guest list, etc. This will make them feel important and of course, boost their self-esteem.

In daily routine too, give your teen space to decide on usual matters and cooperate in little things, such as cooking, tidying up the living room, etc

Allow your teen to take risks

Being overprotective does not let the kid take risks and learn from her experiences. Therefore, allow her to take small risks in your presence.

My daughter's friend got stuck in the lift, and from that moment my 8-year-old daughter was scared of going alone in the lift. But, I encouraged her and assured her that I would stand and watch in front of the elevator until she reached safely. That worked for us and now, she confidently takes the elevator alone.

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Help her to recover from failures

When she fails to perform as per the expectations of her teachers or peers, her confidence may dip. At that time, your words of encouragement and your opinion about the situation can do a lot to build her confidence again.

Remind her of her past accomplishments, beautiful experiences, and pictures that reflect her positives.

Model healthy self-confidence in front of kids

Confident parents raise confident kids!

Your own opinion about yourself and your response to various situations shape the mindset of your kids. Therefore, watch out for your actions as you are always monitored by your kids. They are going to follow in your footsteps.

Unconditional love

If your acceptance goes beyond the grades and performance of your child, then come what may, your child will reflect a positive attitude in everything he does. So, love unconditionally even if he fails to perform better or take the wrong decisions.

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Raising your daughter in her tween years

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Daughters are a precious gift for parents, especially dads. Raising daughters is filled with so much fun and laughter. However, tween times are a bit different. It takes much more than you think to develop a special bond with your daughter in tween years.

                                                  

Raising daughters happily

Your once upon sweet, little girl can be bitter, moody, drama-queen or self-centered at times.  Nevertheless, she will be an affectionate and mature daughter at other times, to your surprise. Your daughter may not be aware of her mood swings and changes in nature as all these are the result of hormones and her newly-discovered status about herself. Despite this, tween times of your daughter can be a memorable time to cherish for years to come.

Related post: 7 tips for parents of tweens and preteens

It has been a pleasant journey with my daughter. She is very jovial and enthusiastic by nature, spreading laughter wherever she goes. However, it happens when she is not able to take certain things in her stride, gets angry at small issues, or just wants to have her own way.

Empower your bond with your growing kids in easy steps

           

How can you empower your bond with growing kids?

                                                   

Do you feel you and your kids are living in different zones? Do you realize that you are short of time to connect with your growing kids like you used to? And you seriously want to do something about it to strengthen the magical bond between you and your kids despite all those hectic schedules, household chores, hobby classes, extracurricular activities of kids, social obligations, and so on.

Easy steps to EMPOWER your bond with your growing kids

Five-minute wonder: 

Even five minutes of one-to-one talking with your kid daily can be so refreshing for both of you and it's not that difficult to trace those moments. You can have a light conversation with your child when you drop or pick her up from school. 

Else if she is going for a hobby class or for a regular doctor visit, simply inquire about her progress or about her day, which will allow her to open up with you. To make it more special, give her a nice hug when you meet her after school and you can see the renewed connection.

Leave notes for kids: 

Whenever you feel you won't be able to find time to connect with them, ensure that your absence does not sadden them. Make notes with cute messages, and inspiring words that will warm their hearts and place them on their study table, bed, or on door. In case, your growing child has a mobile phone then you can share messages and stay in touch.

                                                   

Share your wishes with each other to stay connected.

Wish list:  

Ask your kids to prepare a list of what they want to do with you which probably, they have missed doing with you lately. Prepare your own list as well and compare. Most probably, you will find a couple of things common between their and your' lists. It can be playing a board game with you, reading out a story, or even making a dish together in the kitchen.

                                                   Printable Christmas games

Timer, please: 

Now this one is interesting to quickly steal some moments. You have a couple of tasks to complete and your daughter wants to play with you. What you can do is set a timer of say 15 minutes in which you would complete a set of tasks and your kid will finish her tasks as well. 

Play some good music, set the timer, and start executing your tasks. It will be a great way to encourage kids to finish their work and enjoy it together.

                             

Share your thoughts: 

Make it a point to share any incident or funny thoughts with your kid daily. Crack a joke, narrate your childhood memories or maybe discuss things happening around you- that's an interesting way to connect with your kid and understand what's going on in his mind and his life. This one is a super easy way to empower your bond with your growing kids.

Simple things can strengthen your bond with your children

Lend your ears patiently: 

No matter how important is your email or how boring the incident is for you, listen out to him as whatever he is sharing is important for him, and even more important is the person to whom he is sharing.  Your patience of a few moments can earn you the bond of a lifetime!

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Practice gratitude at home:  

Take a moment to thank your children for keeping things back at their place, for making their beds, or anything else even if it is very little. It makes a lot of difference for them as you acknowledge their contribution and their efforts. In addition, you can see the same habit being infused in them naturally.

Monthly affair:  

Frequent outings with kids may be a difficult thing to plan but you can ensure once a month fun-filled day in any form. It can be watching a movie together, camping in the backyard, traveling, playing under the sun, shopping together, or anything else that gives a chance to have exclusive time with kids.

In case, going out is not an option then switch to virtual meetings with friends, virtual tours, or weekend movie plans at home.


                               

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Are you hurting self-esteem of your growing kid?

                                                                      

While it's okay to feel low sometimes but feeling low about oneself continuously is not a good sign, especially among growing kids. Sometimes, even as parents, we can't estimate the causes of low self-esteem in kids. Several reasons make a child less confident and sadly, at times, parents contribute to low self-confidence in their own child.

A kid with low self-esteem feels lonely and left out.

Now when a kid has deficient self-esteem then it needs to be rectified before it has a severe effect on the psyche and life of the kid. The first step to handling low self-esteem in your growing kid is to ascertain probable reasons for the same. Find out if you as a parent have done or undone something that is hurting the confidence of your child.

Reasons that hurt the self-esteem of growing kid

Let us check out probable causes of low self-esteem and make sure your tween/ teen is not going through the same:

When a kid feels neglected:

The absence of personal attention and support from parents may lead to low self-esteem in the kid. Whether parents are occupied with work or over-engaged on social media, providing quality time to kids is mandatory to make them feel secure. However, if you can’t keep your hands off your laptop or mobile while your kid is eager to share his story then he may feel neglected to cause a dip in confidence.

If you have older children to entertain, then check out these wacky printable Christmas party games for teens. They break the ICE, not the BANK! 

When you over-interfere:

                                              

                                                   

Being over-caring can adversely affect the confidence of a child.

If you are one of those who make sure to instruct their tween now and then or check what they are doing all the time, then the child may feel you don’t trust his abilities. Your overindulgence in his every decision and action may erode his confidence to work and achieve independently. So better, keep a check on your over-caring attitude!

When you forget to appreciate enough:

You remember to pinpoint their mistakes but often forget to appreciate their small achievements or endeavors. Instead of showing the right path, if you become overly critical of his actions or use harsh words for the child, the result is your teen feels he is not good enough.

This is not what you want to happen, right?

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When you compare with peers:

To boost the confidence of your child, you compare her to siblings or peers, but it backfired! Constant comparison of the performance or behavior of your child with others or pushing your kid to become like others will definitely cause serious damage to her self-esteem. Check this habit before it destroys the self-esteem of your child!

                                                            

When you do not respect:

Mocking their behavior in front of your friends or spelling out their weaknesses with other adults disgust your child. When you try to prove that your child is silly, not good enough or bad at something, he assumes that he is not worthy of his parents.

When you give up on your child:

        

When you give up the hope that your teenager can improve, he also gives up his hope, you know. Your discouraging attitude and words have a deep negative effect on him that may not be reversible.

So, before you expect your child to be responsible, sensible, or anything else, check if you have any of the above habits that can damage his self-esteem. I hope these parenting tips for preteens and tweens will go a long to building healthy relationships with your growing child.

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