Now more than ever it’s so important to begin practicing confidence and raising your children to be confident as well.  Thanks to social media, societal pressures, the fast fashion industry, and the constant changes within beauty standards, more and more people become far more self-conscious. This has unfortunately reached young children as well. Television shows, YouTube videos, apps, games, toys, and anything else that a child consumes for entertainment is some form or another usually telling children that they need to change something about themselves.

This is terrifying and it especially shouldn’t be affecting children! As parents, how can we stop this? It’s important to know that you can’t control everything, you can’t control everything that your children see, do, and what they’re exposed to. It’s just not possible. Since their environment can’t always be controlled, it’s important to know that you can at least counteract it by raising your children to be confident.

Raising confident children, and letting them eat, live, and breathe self-esteem is going to be the best step to take as a parent is letting them know that they’re beautiful the way they are. It lets them know that they’re doing enough, and most of all, it helps them to not compare themselves to others and question themselves. These are some tips for helping your children become confident and to help you as the parent raise your little ones into becoming confident children with high self-esteem. 

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Start young

You’ll want to start this the moment you find out that you and your partner are going to have a child. Many soon-to-be parents, and even young parents, begin putting expectations onto their children. Putting expectations on your child, especially when they’re still just a fetus is going to set yourself and your child up for failure. This isn’t the way to grow confidence in your child, and this isn’t the way to have a healthy relationship with your child either.

Sure, while the idea of you and your partner fantasizing about your child becoming the one to cure cancer, become the next president, or major athlete is a very attractive idea, it’s better to not have those ideas or expectations. Instead, shake things up and envision all the fun possibilities that your child is going to have, thinking about their personality traits, what they’re going to find of interest, and how their character is going to be. In general, put healthy expectations on your child and build them up by thinking about their qualities, not what they can or will do.

Let them know that they’re perfect the way they are

It doesn’t matter how old or young your children are, you should always let them know they’re beautiful both inside and out. Starting young is going to be the best way to let them gain their self-esteem and to block out negative thoughts that state otherwise. This also includes not criticizing them often, especially when it comes to their appearance. If they styled their hair a certain way, compliment it. If they’re picking out their outfits or discovering their own style, just praise them.

Tell them it’s okay to have some insecurities

Everybody has their own insecurities, it’s just something that cannot be avoided. Let them know it’s normal to have insecurities but they shouldn’t eat them.  Sometimes it’s fine to make changes because they may solve a bigger issue and they can help. Everyone has insecurities and sometimes there need to be solutions to these.

There’s nothing wrong with that and it should be accepted. However, if insecurities become a major problem and it’s obsessive, that’s when a problem happens. Even when raising confident children. It’s best to understand that in the end, they’ll still have insecurities eventually within their life.  It’s just something that you’ll have to let it be.

Let them know change isn’t bad

As a parent, it’s vital that you let your little ones know that there isn’t anything wrong with making changes. Changes can even be a good thing that helps. For example, many parents will look into CO2 Laser Release | Lip Tie Infants | Tongue Tie Infants for these infants. As this is something that is known for causing breast feeding difficulties and other problems, the parent looks into making a change for the baby that will help them. Making changes about yourself or letting the parents help with making changes can truly be a good thing. A part of confidence is understanding this. 

Show your confidence

Children love to emulate what their parents do. If you’re wanting to raise a confident child then you’re going to have to be confident yourself. This isn’t an easy task, confidence isn’t something that anyone is born with. It’s just something that comes naturally with a good environment and positive reinforcement. However, this is quite possibly going to be a mental challenge.

Parents have a lot of insecurities, whether it be age, their parenting styles, their occupation, weight, just basically anything at all. This can even include insecurities about common hair problems that should worry you anymore. In general, you’re going to have to mentally challenge yourself to drop your insecurities and accept yourself for who you are. Remember, to raise confident children means you must be confident yourself.  

Teach them to accept compliments

This also applies to you as the parent. Sometimes it can be difficult to accept compliments, to a degree we’re almost programmed to not want to accept them. Accepting compliments isn’t bragging, it’s someone saying something nice. Teach your children to accept these compliments, accepting compliments is a way to let this positive reinforcement in. Positive reinforcements are the way to allow confidence to grow.

Build up your child

Building up your child is going to build up their confidence, belief in themselves, plus it’s going to help their development into a good person. If they did something good, cheer them on and praise them. If they’re sad and crying, hug them. Speak nicely to them, encourage them, and recognize their positive behavior and actions. This is all going to help them and it’s going to be incorporated in developing high self-esteem.

Get your whole family on board

Family, your friends, babysitters, and anyone else that is involved with your children. While it may be difficult to get teachers on board, trying to get others on board will help. It’s important to try your best to surround your children with positive reinforcement. You want people to be around your children that are going to be nice to nice, share words of wisdom, and encourage them.