Building Self Esteem In Children

For any child to succeed in life, you must build up their Self-Esteem. Once they have this, later
on as they grow up, they should be able to succeed in achieving some of their ambitions which
they have dreamt about; this can happen with encouragement of the parents and teachers
which all plays a part in 'shaping your child'.
The moment commences right at the birth of a child. Parents smile at the first glimpse of their
child, the moment they utter their first words, the moment they can stand and take their first few
steps, unaided - throughout every stepping stone in their life.
Parents may not even realize that at this stage, a child is able to accept acknowledgement
through spoken words and any signs of affection. An effective way of building up their child's
Self-Esteem is by regularly giving the child lots of praise.
Some experts believe that if parents do this too often it can have consequences. This can be for
two reasons:
Firstly, if a child does something to be proud of the praise they receive will be what they come to
expect. Besides the parents, the child will come across millions of people in their lifetime, and
they soon realize that words of praise are not as forthcoming as they had come to expect. They
will not be rewarded for everything good deed.
Secondly, a young child does not always do things correctly. Sometimes they are badly
behaved and unless a parent does something about this, a child will not learn the difference
between what is right and what is wrong.
Another part of building up Self-Esteem includes knowing when to give constructive criticism.
This is by explaining to a child when they have done something correctly and also when they
have done something in the wrong manner. There are always many ways of approaching a
situation and sometimes when you review what you have done, you realize that you could've
handled it differently. The parent must also be able to achieve a balance in criticizing a child, as
too much can dent their confidence, as time and time again they are corrected on their behavior
and they will feel personally attacked.
Parents do this not only to turn the child into somebody they can be proud of such as God when
he decided to create a man, but simply so that their child becomes a person that is an active
member of today's society and live as a law abiding citizen or by any given rules.
Thirdly, another way of building Self-Esteem in your children is by the parents setting a good
example. The actions being displayed by the mum or dad play a major role in the how their child
develops. Those that swear, will often be surprised when one day the child comes out and does
the same. Parents are the first role models that a child will come across.
Although by watching film and television, this can also play a part in what a child picks up,
parents are generally there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is much longer than what an
hour or two of a programme can do to influence a child.
Parents are the ones that must set an example for their child to follow. Even if either mum or
dad as a child, did not have much self worth or pride their children should not have to go
through the same experience. These people learn from their mistakes made before and try their
very best to prevent this happening to what will be the future generation.
It is never easy to bring out the best in a child. There are always trials ahead, and those who
succeed can be proud of seeing their son or daughter graduate from high school or college, and
instill these same qualities in their own children.