Looking for practical advice to help you raise confident, capable kids? You’re in luck because we have seven brilliant tips to grow your child’s confidence! From being a great role model and setting goals together to trying new things, here are our top tips.
Top tips for raising confident kids:
- Keep a positive attitude about mistakes
- Be a confidence role model
- Set goals together
- Allow room for failure
- Give them responsibilities
- Encourage practice and perseverance
- Try new things
1. Keep a positive attitude about mistakes
One of the best ways to grow your child’s confidence is to keep a positive attitude about mistakes. After all, everyone makes mistakes from time to time, and learning how to recover gracefully is an important life skill.
You can model this behaviour by taking responsibility for any mistakes you make, fixing any damage and then moving on instead of dwelling. Of course, you’ll want to encourage your children to do the same. For instance, if they spill their juice, you might calmly note why it happened and explain how they can avoid making the same mistake again. Then help them clean it up, pour some more and continue with whatever activity you were doing.
2. Be a confidence role model
Children learn by example, so modelling confidence is important. As noted in the previous point, this means owning up to your mistakes, but it also means taking chances, trying new thing, keeping an open mind and maintaining a positive outlook on life.
3. Set goals together
Setting, working toward and achieving goals is a surefire way to build confidence at any age. Work together with your children to set individual or family goals. These don’t have to be major accomplishments — it could be learning five words in a foreign language each month or doing a certain number of push-ups. Setting goals will help children understand the value of planning and hard work, and they’ll build up quite a lot of confidence along the way.
4. Allow room for failure
Life is full of ups and downs, and failure is a part of any success story. It might sound counterintuitive, but letting your kids fail is a vital part of building their confidence. Sometimes kids don’t quite earn the marks they wanted, or their team loses an important match. When this happens, model good sportsmanship, celebrate any mini-wins and discuss how they might do better next time. Remember: failure is a wonderful teacher — and it helps kids really appreciate their future successes.
5. Give them responsibilities
Everyone likes to feel needed — and tasking your children with responsibilities can also help boost their confidence. Learning to do certain household chores, such as hanging laundry, loading the dishwasher or making their own bed can help children feel capable and accomplished. Don’t forget to tell them how much you appreciate their efforts!
6. Encourage practice and perseverance
As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. However, it’s common for children to lose interest in something if they’re not good at it right away. To build their confidence, encourage them to persevere. Practising will not only make them better at what they’re trying to achieve, but it will show them that they’re capable of doing great things. And this knowledge provides a huge confidence boost!
7. Try new things
Trying new things is an important part of building a child’s confidence. From time to time, encourage your child to step outside of their comfort zone. This might mean riding a rollercoaster for the first time or joining a new sports team or art class. When children try new things, they learn about themselves, their interests and their abilities. In turn, this helps children grow into strong, self-aware and confident individuals!
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