People will be surprised if it is pointed out that recognizing the value self-esteem in children starts right when they are babies. When a baby conveys through signals and when others respond appropriately, the baby understands the value of his or her own feelings and expressions. Not only that, the baby understands the value of his or her very being. This is the beginning of self-esteem in the lives of children.
Parents should take all the steps to build character and self-esteem in their children at a very early stage. How they handle their children’s behavior and their signals and how they respond to them may pave the way for building character and enhancing the confidence levels in children. The following tips may be useful.
Understand your importance
Parents should understand that they are the most important people in their children’s lives. They have the responsibility of making their children understand the world. In fact, parents alone can make their children realize how important they are and how they are perceived by others.
What happens when children grow?
As children grow, self-esteem becomes a complex process because there are a number of interlocking emotions that may influence how they look at themselves and how they are viewed by others. This complexity may lead to fluctuations in self-esteem. That is the reason parents are advised to lay a strong foundation when the children are quite young by responding to their signals appropriately and nurturing their character and esteem.
Develop a stable nature in children
Parents should ensure to develop a stable nature in children so that they have a good opinion about themselves. But the opinion should be based on reasonableness and reality. If children are able to perceive their abilities and talents accurately and learn to respond to life’s situations with a flexible approach, they will be able to look at their goals also in a realistic manner. This is what can build their character and their self-esteem.
How showing love can enhance self-esteem and help in building character in children
Children look upon parents for almost everything. Parents should shower their love on them. At the same time, excessive pampering may also spoil the children and may work against the character building efforts of the parents. So, parents should understand the thin line between loving and pampering and make their efforts appropriately. Parents should know the interests of children but if they find that negative interests are present in their children, they should nip them in the bud. Once these negative interests are allowed to become strong, it may be very difficult to get rid of them. Belated efforts on the part of parents to get rid of such interests may cause frustration in children and these efforts may hurt them also. This may spoil the relationship between the parents and the children and such a strained relationship may become a road-block to the character building efforts of the parents.
Importance of competence
Children should be made to understand that competence alone can make them confident. So parents should make all the efforts in making their children competent. Nowadays, children face a lot of distractions that may create disorder in their minds. They should learn to sift through these distractions and create and perceive order in the midst of disorder. Parents should help them in this process. If children succeed in these efforts, their competence will improve and their self-esteem levels will also go up. Parents will succeed in their character-building efforts also if children are able to find order even in the midst of disorder. This means that these children will not allow external things to influence their character.
In short, parents should start the process of building character and enhancing self-esteem in their children very early.