by Victoria Rose Perkins

Created on: November 05, 2007   Last Updated: August 18, 2008

Tips for building self-esteem in children is a very important and rewarding work. If it is done with love and patience,it can produce confident and successful adults, who will become valuable assets in their community. A win-win situation.

More importantly, adults who have good self-esteem, tend to excel in all aspects of life and overall appear to enjoy life in a more meaningful way. Self-esteem builds happiness the way nothing else can. In a sense, self-esteem is the first rung on the ladder leading to success, in any endeavor.

I found by setting small, attainable goals early on, that it would bring a smile of delight to my child's face and an eagerness to try bigger and better things. Right from the time they begin to crawl across the floor to when they finally grow-up and leave home, encouragement and praise need to be given often and freely.

A way to set attainable goals is to think how you learned to tie your shoe and write your name. Take into account how good you felt when you finally mastered these things. Encouragement and success of attainable goals builds trust. Trust, in turn, is linked to confidence. And confidence leads to good self-esteem.

When a homework paper is well done, or a school project, stop and really go over it with your child letting them know how proud you are of them. Even if it is a "C+" but the wholehearted efort was there, it deserves the parental praise of an "A+" in attitude.

If your child is a bit shy, try gently to encourage them to try out a hobby, sport, musical instrument, swimming or singing lessons, gymastics. The idea is to talk to them first and get their opinions on choosing from a list and then support them all the way through with their choice. Every child has good abilities, they just need to be prodded a bit, when shy, to bring out their special talents.

When they face the challenge of learning something new and conquer it, they will build self-esteem. This will lead to trust in themselves and confidence to try greater things.

When your child is little, praise often, when older praise often. Just be sure its deserved and sincere.

Think how proud we were when our child got his firt tooth, said his first word, walked by themselves across the room. We were excited. This same excitement needs to follow our child throughout their growing up years if we want to build self-esteem in them.

That encouraging "pat on the back" we all long for.... no matter what our age is. Sincere, loving praise makes us happy with others and happy with ourselves and happiness produces success. Have you praised your child today? I'm going to do that right now!

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