Raising a Confident Child

One of the most important concepts ever to instill in your child is self-confidence. With a healthy dose of confidence a child can do anything they put their mind to and without it they could be stuck in a life of uncertainty. As a parent, knowing how to ensure you are raising a child with a healthy amount of self-esteem can be tricky. You are not always sure if you are doing the right thing, or if it is your fault if they feel down or if it is their peers or a phase. As a parent, you can only do so much to set your child up for success and the rest is your child's own journey. However, there are little things you as a parent can do to be the best parent you can be and create a healthy environment for your developing child. To help give a few tips to helping raise a confident child, I created a Dos and Don'ts list for helping a child achieve a adequate self-esteem.

Do encourage you child to make and write down smart goals for the future.

• Making goals can help motivate your child and strengthen healthy behaviors

Don't create all goals for your child.

• Allowing your child to create their own goals is empowering and will help a child be more motivated to achieve them themselves. You as a parent can make a few small goals based upon behavior and such, but make sure that your child agrees to they terms and is not being directly controlled.

Do praise your child often for achieving goals and successes.

• Recognizing successes will push a child to achieve their goals, because they know what they do matters. Praise is one of the most important components in creating a self-confident child.

Don't over-praise your child.

• It is crucial to instill self-confidence in your child, but it is also crucial to make sure your child is humble and is not over-confident. Over-confidence can lead to future problems socially. Be sure to sparingly admit your child's faults and help your child create goals to overcome these faults. Make sure to always encourage your child to be humble and work hard for what they have.

Do instill independence.

• Make sure as a parent to motivate your child to be independent and do tasks on their own. Independence and self-confidence come hand in hand. Allowing your child to work independently can show a child that they are capable of achieving goals for themselves.

Don't be controlling.

• Although you may feel a constant urge to do everything for your child and force them into situations that you yourself want your child to be in, if you want to raise a self-confident independent child you can to use self control and allow you child to work on their own and control their own future. At a young age, you can help turn your child in the right moral and safe direction, but after elementary age and adolescence reaches, your role as a parent in decision making should start to decline gradually until adult hood. As a parent, it is important to a point to let go of your own dreams for your child and let your child form their own dreams.