As your family grows, it’s not easy to find the time to make plans or think of effective parenting strategies. Between pick-ups and drop-offs, work, and household chores, you might barely be able to catch your breath. So how do you know if you’re taking the right steps to help your children become confident pre-teens who can carry that confidence with them throughout life? There isn’t a straightforward road map to get you there, but here are some broad approaches you can tailor to fit your family to raise confident children.
Give Them Responsibilities
Children grow up fast, so you need to be ready to hand out the responsibilities as soon as your kids can handle helping out around the home. You can start with small things such as asking your toddler to help you pick up the toys at the end of the day. For children aged five and above, the tasks and chores might become more complicated.
Taking ownership of chores and activities is a key way to build confidence. Things like feeding the family dog or helping to raise a puppy are important milestones for children. Make sure that you hold honest and open discussions with your children to check in with them about how they feel about the responsibilities you’ve given out. For example, many families regret getting puppy and have to navigate the tough growing pains together, but this is just another opportunity to connect with your kids and help them develop life skills such as patience.
Let Them Make Mistakes
Even though you may understand the outcome of something your children are about to do, you still have to let them make mistakes. Protecting your children from any outcome that isn’t as expected will only make it more difficult for them to deal with challenging situations when you’re not around.
Children are young scientists. They need to try things over and over to understand the connection between cause and effect. Use your parenting judgment and resources to maintain a safe environment in which your children can learn from their mistakes.
Focus on Resilience
Resilient people are confident people, and this is something you can help your family focus on from the time your children are young. Being confident doesn’t mean you never fail or get hurt. When your children experience disappointment after something doesn’t follow their expectations, use it as an opportunity to learn how to bounce back.
Resilience is an incredibly important trait that aids in lifelong success in both the personal and professional spheres. As soon as you think it’s appropriate, discuss the concept of resilience with your children and try to model the behavior you want them to inherit.
Listen to Their Needs
To become confident young people, your children need to know that you listen to their needs and respond accordingly. If your children feel ignored or abandoned, they may have difficulties developing strong confidence. The healthiest kind of confidence comes from the knowledge that you have a solid foundation of support in your life, including people to turn to when things go wrong.
Nurture Their Interests
As a parent, you have a profound ability to influence your children’s zest for life by nurturing their interests. If you notice a lack of confidence in your children, it could be because they aren’t feeling engaged with the hobbies and school subjects in front of them. Take time to really see what your children are interested in. Even if it seems silly, your attention will help your kids feel seen and understood, which will lead to a growing sense of confidence in themselves.
Building and maintaining confidence is a journey with many hills and valleys. As you explore these techniques with your children, you might find that there are ways you can improve your own confidence as an adult. Every stride that you make is something you can share with your family so that you can all grow together.
