Parenting Tips: 6 Tips For Building Confidence In Children

Building a child's confidence at an early age is essential for their holistic development as confidence is fundamental to a kid's accomplishment, happiness, and health. Here are some insights on how to give children the confidence they need to make the most of their abilities.

Parenting Tips: 6 Tips For Building Confidence In Children (Pic courtesy: Pexels)

Raising confident kids: Confidence is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give their child. Just like wet clay, kids adapt to the ways of life by observing their parents and learning from the people around them. More self-assured kids do better in a range of extracurricular and academic activities. 

To achieve great things and lead a fulfilling life, confidence is needed. Children who lack confidence typically don't want to explore new things and often do badly in school competition than their more self-confident friends.

This may end up holding them back later in life and preventing them from having a fulfilling career. Discouragement and fear are the enemies of confidence, thus as a parent, it is your responsibility to support and cheer on your kid while they seek to do challenging activities.

So listen up parents! Here are 6 tips for raising confident children:

1. Model confidence

Even if you're not feeling it! Kids learn well by watching you take on new challenges with zeal and determination. Do acknowledge your anxiety, but keep your focus on the constructive efforts you are doing instead.

2. Appreciate efforts

The journey is more important than the destination as you progress in life. Praise your child's effort regardless of whether he scores a winning goal for his team or unintentionally knocks the ball out of bounds since they should never feel embarrassed for trying.

3. Let them act their age

Expecting your children to behave in mature ways is unrealistic and comes under bad parenting.  When a kid believes that meeting their parent's expectations is the ultimate viable benchmark, they might put out very little effort. Trying to live to higher age standards might diminish confidence.

4. Let them figure out problems on their own

Your kids won't learn how to solve problems on their own if you always do the hard task for them. The confidence gained through self and working things out oneself can be avoided with parental guidance. In other words, as long as your child is genuinely learning how to handle the difficulties and complete the task, it is best that they earn a few Bs and Cs rather than all As.

5. Foster curiosity

Although a child's never-ending stream of questions might occasionally be annoying, they should be welcomed. Children who grew up in homes where asking questions was encouraged to have an advantage over their peers when they start school because they are used to learning from their parents, which transfers to learning from their teachers. So, they are skilled at learning more quickly and effectively.

6. Embrace imperfection

Perfectionism is unattainable, and as adults, we must teach children this lesson as early as possible. Help kids understand that the notion of people being always happy, successful, and well-dressed is a dream, and a damaging one, whether it is portrayed to them on TV, in a magazine, or on a friend's social media page. Instead, reassure them that being imperfect is completely okay and human.

7. Show your love and be affectionate

Let your child know that you will always be there for him. Good grades or poor grades, winning or losing the big game. Even when you're upset with your child make sure your kid is mindful of your love for them. This will help them feel better about themselves even when they're not feeling very confident.

Children become joyful and self-assured when shown physical affection because it conveys feelings of love, acceptance, and belonging. Young kids should receive high fives, back pats, hair tousles, and lots of hugs from their parents and teachers to express that they are loved and appreciated.

(This article is meant for informational purposes only and must not be considered a substitute for the advice provided by  qualified professionals.)