A child with healthy self-esteem is one of their most important characteristics. A child’s social, behavioral, and emotional health is impacted by the confidence they carry. Improve your child’s self-esteem by watching out for negative messages, helping them maintain good hygiene, and getting them involved.
Watch Out for Negative Messages
The messages kids hear about themselves can be damaging to their self-esteem and confidence. Messages from siblings, friends, neighbors, and even from you can shape the way they feel about themselves. As a parent, you should try to ban all negative messages in your home.
This includes messages in the media. The media can display what the perfect child should look like. Your child will internalize those messages to mean that if they do not look like the media, they are not perfect. Issues surrounding body image and self-esteem are often affected by what children see published in the media. Try to have a healthy relationship with what kind of media enters your home and talk through the messages your child receives.
Help Them Maintain Good Hygiene
Everyone knows the saying “when you look good, you feel good”. Teaching your child to have good hygiene is a confidence booster for them. They learn how to take care of themselves and appreciate their bodies for what they can do. Teach your child the importance of bathing, wearing clean clothes, eating healthy, and brushing their teeth. There are some services you can have done to help boost their appearance, including hair coloring and teeth whitening. Although, kids should be at least 13 or 14 before you consider teeth whitening treatments.
Get Them Involved
When your child is involved in activities outside the home, they gain confidence in themselves. Extracurricular activities teach a child responsibility and social skills. As your child is involved in different activities, they come to understand what they are interested in and naturally good at. Finding hobbies teaches a child how to make and achieve goals. Any time kids try things, do something new, or learn something, it is an opportunity for their self-esteem to grow. Let your child discover the world around them by getting them involved.
Children begin to develop self-esteem at a very young age. Even as babies they develop ideas of what they can and can’t do. Feeling good about themselves is vital to their success and willingness to try new things.
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