The main corner stone to leading a mentally positive and healthy life is positive self-esteem. Children are young and impressionable and will be influenced by the environment they grow in. A child who is always abused and criticized could grow up to be withdrawn, introverted and feel inadequate. Such a child will never make a success in their life or career and could always be failures. A child, who grows in a positive environment, is encouraged to try new things and taught the important lesson that they can fail and not be failures will become an emotionally stable and successful adult.

As a parent, you must help build a child\’s self-esteem through your words and actions. They should be given unconditional love, gentle and positive discipline and taught to believe in themselves and their abilities. Use a few tips from experts to guide you in the process:
– Be positive and not negative
– Pay attention
– Celebrate accomplishments
– Teach them to reach out to others
– Encourage them to be adventurous
– Offer choices
– Teach limits

Many parents want perfect children – they often forget the mistakes they have made themselves while growing. It is important to know that each one has their good and bad points and being positive around growing kids is extremely important. Don’t keep on pointing out their mistakes; rather highlight the things that they can do well. A sincere compliment will encourage your child to try harder at things he or she is not so good at and succeed at them too.

Even if your child does something wrong – like beating his friend – reprimand his behavior and say that beating is wrong and it will hurt his friend rather than saying he is a bad boy. By criticizing the act and not the doer, your child will learn not to make the same mistake again. When your child talks to you, make sure you stop whatever you are doing, make eye contact and listen to them. This will encourage your child to speak about their day at school and tell you all the fun and bad things that happened.

A child who knows his parents have time to listen will continue to take them into his confidence as he grows older and not become silent and withdrawn as most teenagers do. To help build self-esteem, parents must celebrate all their kid’s accomplishments. Be it a ball game, dance program, play or concert, take time however busy you are to attend them. A child is so happy to see his or her parents in the crowd cheering them. Even if the child loses a game, tell him how well he and his team played. Put up pictures of their achievements in the house so that they will know their parents support and appreciate their talents.

Doing volunteer work is a great way to promote self-esteem. Any human being feels good when they help those who are less fortunate. It could be by reading to the elderly, raising money to help hurricane victims or even helping a friend who is handicapped with a chore. This will show them how others live, teach them not to ridicule or look down upon those who are less fortunate and at the same time develop a sense of self-worth in themselves too.

Teach your child to be adventurous and try new things – like a new hobby or a sport. This will get them out of their fear of the unknown and who knows, they may even get to like it. However, do not be a ‘pushy’ parent who wants their kids to take part in different activities and excel in each. This will only stress them out and make them feel inadequate and unloved. Not all kids can do well in sports, music, stand first in class and act at the same time. So let them have fun while taking part in different activities without any undue pressure.

Finally, offer choices so that they can be involved in the decision making process. At the same time learn to set limits so that kids do not dictate terms to you. Healthy risks are good but kids should not become too bold and try dangerous things like underage drinking or driving. Peer pressure is the biggest problems that children and teenagers face. If they are brought up in a positive and healthy environment, they will have a sense of self-esteem about themselves and will not succumb to peer pressure as they grow into adulthood.

Author Bio: Article by Kenny Leichester of http://www.patioshoppers.com, a website with the best patio furniture information on the web.

Category: Parenting
Keywords: Help build a child\\\’s self-esteem