Raising Confident Children: How Confident Kids and Teens Make a Community Strong
Raising confident children is definitely a wise investment in your future and theirs. But it is also a way to make your community strong and positioned well for what the future will bring.
Instilling confidence in our children begins the day they enter our lives. You them to be poised for the people and situations they will encounter to achieve the success they deserve.
Parents usually want their children to be self-confident – after all, self-confidence is a key component of success in life. And remember that instilling confidence in our children begins the day they enter our lives. But how do you teach this important life skill?
Meet Their Needs
Experts note that babies and later children who have their needs met consistently – needs for food, comfort, a listening ear, etc. – are learning the message that they are worth paying attention to; they learn they have worth. Some professionals believe this is best accomplished through the practice of attachment parenting. Others simply note that prompt and consistent meeting of needs will send a positive message to children.
Watch What You Say
In a similar vein to the paragraph above, be careful about complaining about your children in their hearing. Yes, parenting is hard, and children can try your patience. But if you need to vent to your friends about the things your child does that drive you crazy, do it at a time when your child is not present or after he or she has fallen asleep.
Raising a Confident Boy
Boys are different from girls and the experts are now teaching us to be aware of this as parents, grandparents, and teachers. Plain and simple, confident boys are happier boys. They feel good about themselves and their accomplishments, which makes them well-adjusted, delightful, and happy children. This is really all a parent wants in her child. Let your child enjoy his life by raising his confidence.
Raising Confident Children: Advice for Teens
Whether you’re a male or female teen, your self-confidence is important. While the emphasis is often on girls’ self-esteem, boys need to be confident, too, and often struggle just as much (although perhaps in different areas). Here are some tips to help teens build their self-confidence.
Recognize Your Talents
It’s easy to blow off your abilities, especially if your peers make fun of them (and they probably do so out of jealousy). But get serious with yourself and make a list of things you love to do and are good at. Keep this list just for yourself and look at it often. Remember it when you flunk a test or say something you wish you hadn’t. Those talents of yours won’t go away, and you can rely on them for the rest of your life… as long as you cultivate them.
Cultivate Your Abilities
You may have so many interests and abilities that it’s impossible to develop them all; or, you may have one thing you really love to do. Regardless, look into developing and using some of your abilities in applications beyond school. Not only will it open more opportunities to look for activities around your community, but it might also remove you from peer judgment.
Resist the Urge to Compare
When you look at your friends, classmates, or pictures of celebrities, try to resist the temptation to scrutinize them as the gold standard to which you should aspire. Someone will always have better legs, superior athletic prowess, nicer hair, etc. than you. But those people don’t set the standard for you; you are who you are, and they can’t measure up to that, either!
Opportunities for Raising Confident Children in Your Community
I am fortunate to be living in two communities (Santa Clarita, California and Santa Barbara) that values the inhabitants and views us a crucial part of the solution to most any situation that may arise. I encourage you to get out there and volunteer, participate, and enjoy what your community has to offer. I see too many of my friends and neighbors heading into Los Angeles or to other locations for work and play and not take advantage of what is right here in our own backyards.
Look through your local newspaper and magazines to find out what’s happening near you. I am regularly on calls with clients and students who have no idea of what’s happening in their local area. Make it a priority to know what’s going on, and now only when you have out-of-town visitors!
When I moved to Santa Clarita in 2006 I vowed to get to know this community and experience everything it had to offer. In so doing I boosted my self confidence, made new friends, and served those in need. I did the same exact thing when I began living part-time in Santa Barbara during 2012.
The best way to be a role model to the children in our lives is to be a confident adult. Everything I have shared with you here can apply to our lives as adults. Make time and space once a week or more to work on your own level of confidence and to model this to your kids in an age appropriate way. You’ll all be glad you did. Raising confident children is the greatest gift you can ever give them.
I’m bestselling author, marketing strategist, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and I would love to connect further with you to help you to achieve your goals. If you are interested in learning how to optimize the syndication of your content, please take a look at my popular Syndication Optimization training course and consider coming aboard to increase your visibility, credibility, and profitability.
Leave a Reply