Building Self Esteem

Ah, your child's first day at kindergarten! As you expected, your child runs to a corner out of
fear and intimidation from the large crowd. This image only brings you back to the memories of
your shying away from the first crowds you were expected to mingle with. Like your parents, it
is always a good idea to try to motivate interaction on part of your child. This is part of the
parent's initiative roles in any little ones' life.
However, sometimes it doesn’t take a hard push toward the crowd to scare the shyness out of
your child's eyes. Actually, this might only increase it more, as they are embarrassed even
more from your loud and public attempts to help.
Parenting is not a science, and there are no 100% accurate manuals available on how to
produce active, unafraid children. The only thing that anyone can do is to teach their children as
best as they can to never shy away from a challenge. This is not something that most adults
get, so being able to teach a child this might just pave a wide, productive road for him or her.
It is not completely uncommon to see older teens and / or adults living with their parents, while
their parents are still protecting them from the many dangers that lie outside of their arm's
length. This is something that needs to be broken in every child's life, as it will take a breaking
away from a parent's embrace to teach them how to live out in the real world on their own. Only
their self esteem can hold them up, and this is a historic promise.
For those of us that are in need of guidance in way of instilling self esteem in our children, the
following are some very helpful hints:
A. Comfort Zone: make it comforting to step outside of their comfort zone
Life is not a set structure with unbreakable rules and consequences. Our children do not need a
set guideline mentality when they grow up; they need the ability to think for themselves and to
take risks. By setting guidelines for them when they are younger and, when something happens
to disrupts this order, allow them to think for themselves and solve to problem at hand, you just
might teach them how to live life more effectively.
B. Understand that the ever stretching protection of the parent's arm has limits
This might be the greatest thing a parent can do for their children, though it may also be the
most painful. By allowing your offspring to make mistakes and to live through the
consequences, they might gain that extra edge to them that they would not if they remained
under the diligent protection of their parents. If a man or woman is able to live through their
experience and learn from their mistakes due to your refusal to intervene, they might also learn
that it is better to learn from another's experience and come asking more questions.
C. Let the poor thing alone!
Like you and your passions and desires, your child born with a unique identity and an individual
personality. This is where most parents sink, as some consider their dreams to be fulfilled
through the lives of their offspring. Rather than allowing them to live their own lives and to see
their dreams to completion, some parents smother the passions of their children and cause
them to live bitter and pointless lives.
These are just a few simple hints as to how to see your child's self esteem grow it its full
potential. As with anything, it all depends of the guardian's encouragement and ability to listen
and release their offspring into their new world that will greatly depend on their success. It is
through encouragement that the majority of this work can be done, and one word of
encouragement can cause the most untalented individual to take over the world.