Self-esteem essentially means how we perceive ourselves. It is a concept important not only for our mental health, but also our behavior, prospects, and relationships as well.
Building a healthy notion of self is a process that starts from childhood. Parents play the pivotal role in establishing the child’s self-esteem. Their words and actions can make or break their child’s confidence in their own abilities.
Children who have self-esteem are more confident, are comfortable in the skin and tend to be more outspoken. As they do not seek external validation, they also have lesser mental health problems as well.
On the other hand, children who suffer from poor self-esteem doubt their own abilities, which can lead to self-sabotage. They look for approval elsewhere. They then struggle very hard to be perfect since their achievements help them then feel better about themselves. Low self-esteem may also lead to mental health problems, and when they pertain to body image, can also cause eating disorders that then require the intervention of your Child specialist in Lahore.
Hence, it is prudent to foster self-esteem in children. Some helpful things to do in this regard include:
Allow them to help
You child’s self-esteem gets a boost when they perceive themselves to be useful around the house. It makes the impression that they are making a difference and hence are important.
Therefore, allow your child to help around the house and acknowledge their efforts.
Don’t be overtly critical
If you are very critical about your children, you are fostering lack of self-esteem in them. Don’t call them lazy, stupid, slow etc., as these are destructive words. Similarly, do not pick on the one mistake that they make, since this will have a grave impact on their confidence levels. Hence, be polite and controlled in any criticism.
Encourage learning new things
When you child has greater skill set, and have more hands-on experience, they are also then more likely to have better self-esteem. Essentially, it helps them in realizing how useful and capable they are, that then has a positive impact on their confidence levels as well.
Play on the strengths
Most parents do not realize what strengths their child has, but instead project their ambitions on their child. For example, if your child likes art, forcing them to study science is you being unfair to them, especially if they struggle at science, which may harm their self-esteem as well.
Thus, make sure that you help your child play on their strengths. Help them with things that are not their cup of tea.
Praise, but correctly
Praise and other words of encouragement are good, but you need to moderate them. Too much praise is not good for your child, and it may also make them complacent.
Also, children are smart. They are able to figure out the difference between empty and genuine praise, and the former then decreases the impact of the latter as well. Hence, be sincere in your praise.
Furthermore, do not praise only the results, but the journey. If your child worked hard at something but did not win, that does not mean that you withhold praise. That will actually have a negative impact on their self-esteem. You should praise their effort and laud their learning in the process.
Set the precedent
If you yourself struggle with self-esteem, are vocal about your flaws in front of your child, and are apparent in your lack of confidence, your child will pick on it. So, work on your esteem issues as well.
Get help
Despite everything that you do, your child may still struggle with self-esteem as children are also more susceptible to peer pressure. If you see your child struggle with conception of self, that is also making them stress and prone to anxiety, then perhaps you should seek counsel of a mental health expert via oladoc.com