collaborative guest post
There are many talented children out there, but they lack confidence and self-esteem. It’s the one thing in their way and it’s a shame as they could be brilliant if they just believed in themselves. At school they have a nurturing environment to help work on this - teachers are there to help pupils recognise their talents and to push them. Below are some ideas as to how you can also help.
This post is in collaboration with a boarding school in London.
Choose Your Words Wisely
Be mindful of the criticism that you dish out. While yes, feedback is good, it’s important that it’s given correctly. If you’re always nagging and picking at their faults, it can begin to affect their confidence. They may lose trust in themselves, be reluctant to try new things and hold themselves back.
Highlight Their Strengths
Don’t hold back on paying your child compliments. Praise them for their hard work and help them in realising their strengths. They will make them feel good about themselves and create confidence. If this is something that your child lacks in, try helping them find what they’re good at.
Explore different activities through an extracurricular activity or club maybe. Even if it’s something completely different to what they’re used to, like playing an instrument for example, as they work at it, they will improve. It will give them a sense of achievement and build their self-esteem.
Low in Confidence
If your child’s usually outgoing and they’ve recently not been themselves, there may be something going on and you should try talking to them. It may be that there’s something that they're nervous about, like their exams or a knockback that they’ve had which has affected their confidence perhaps. Building confidence in children is essential to their self-esteem and how they will ultimately interact in the world as adults.
Set an Example of How to Love Yourself
Confidence also comes from within and how you view yourself so it’s important to treat yourself with kindness and compassion. It’s not an easy thing to do though, especially for a child that may have insecurities. They will need your help in accepting them and by doing so, you can help them to see the wonderful things about themselves and grow their self-esteem. This is something that you can also do by being kind to yourself and practising self-love.
Self-esteem is such a key part to a child’s growth and development. We hope that the guidance laid out in this post helps. For more parenting resources, take a look at my blog.
