What is Self-Esteem?

Dictionary.com defines self-esteem as “A realistic respect for or favorable impression of oneself; self-respect.”

Teach your child the following to build Positive Self-Esteem:

• Develop Healthy Behavior: Children are innocent. They do not know what is good or bad, right or wrong, harmful or harmless. They require someone who will guide them to develop a healthy behavior which will enable them to live a self-dependent and independent life. A healthy behavior would mean that the child acts with a complete sense of who they are and what they must do to remain happy all their life. Developing such a healthy behavior would be necessary for a parent to enable their children to become successful in all aspects of life.
  

• To Develop Strong Mental, Physical, Spiritual and Social Health: When a child is young; he must be educated, trained and made completely aware of developing his ‘health’. If a child understands the benefits of developing a good health during childhood would mean that the child will live a long and healthy life. Health just not relates to keeping your body fit but also your mind, soul and your relationships ‘healthy’ and a child must be made very much aware about it when they are in kindergarten or in primary school. Health develops self-esteem.
  

• Freedom: Freedom is always essential for your child to freely make mistakes and even resolve them quickly. It gives them the space to initiate an experiment and find a specific result. Children should not be taught limited beliefs that bind them into taking incomplete responsibility for their actions. Freedom is essential to make your children self-responsible and creative. Freedom develops self-esteem.

• Express Fully and Openly: When children are small, they tend to be scared easily. Many of them are even shy to talk openly about what they feel because they fear a lot. This creates a communication gap between a child and a parent, specially if they are regular at daycares. It is the parent’s responsibility to see that their child is not scared of talking even in front of a huge audience. Until the child learns to share whats their on his/her mind and heart, the child will never be able to discover their self-worth, their self esteem. Give them some quality time and space dedicated to them every day and you will get very good results over a period of time. Complete expression develops strength and self-esteem in a child.

• Rules, not limits: Set rules for your children, not limits. Limiting your child to prohibit them from acting in a certain way will only backfire your decision by time. Children must be taught why these rules are made and what benefit it entails rather than scare them to discourage a certain action. This way, children learn to develop a relationship with their own self.
  

• How to Communicate Effectively: Children must be taught to communicate sharply and smartly at a very young age. Children must be made very ‘receptive’ in order for them to become very good communicators. A habit must be inculcated within of keeping their ears open while the other person is speaking. Good communicators are very good presenters. The ones who are good presenters have a very good self-esteem.
  

• Positive Thinking and Positive Beliefs: Teaching your children positive beliefs, that demystify the illusion within them, can help your child grow very fast and smartly. If a parent takes conscious effort to teach their children the art of thinking ‘positively’, a child will never ever suffer from hard shocks, rude failures and low self-esteem.

• En – courage – ment: Encouragement simply means to enable courage within a person to live life completely and fearlessly. Children must be ‘en – couraged’ in order to make them brave and courageous. If a child plays a game like a master, tell them they can do it because they have the complete potential in them to master anything at hand rather than telling them that they are just good at the game. Acknowledge the child rather than their efforts.

• Develop Leadership Skills: Finally, a child must be made strong enough to develop leadership skills and qualities within them. After all, the child must be able to lead himself and the world in the right direction without any hesitation or doubt rather than the world leading him.