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The Importance of Building Self-confidence

The most important thing you could give your child after teaching him how to worship god is building his self confidence. Lack of confidence could dramatically affect the social life, career, health and all other aspects of life of a grown up. This means that by not raising a confident child, you won’t just be leaving your child lacking confidence and feeling bad as a grown up, you will also be placing obstacles on his path to happiness and success.

How to Raise Self-confident Children

Raising a self-confident child is not a hard task, it only requires you to get rid of some of your false beliefs about your child and treating him in a positively different way.
The following is what you should do:

• He's only a child: One of the major causes of a lack of self-confidence as a grown up is being belittled as a child. This means that a child feels that his/her opinion is not important and that he's not as worthy as grown ups. How many mothers and fathers just ignore their child's wants or needs? How many mothers and fathers shout at the child in public, scolding him for making a mistake? Know that your child does not think that he is a child, he just knows that he is a person. If he was treated as a worthy person, he will feel worthy, otherwise he will lack self-confidence as a grown up. Let him feel that he is important, let him choose his own clothes whenever possible, let him pick his toys and don’t just force him to follow your plans as if he is not there.
• Scolding him when he makes mistakes: Shouting at a child or calling him names like “stupid” on making a mistake will probably have him end up thinking that making mistakes is something that is only for stupid people. This is ridiculous of course, since we are not perfect beings. He will find that he makes a lot of mistakes, as every human being does, but it'll lead him to think that he's stupid or a fool. When a child makes mistakes, talk to him about it and be patient. Don’t forget that, even as an adult, you make mistakes too.
• Treating him as a thing and not a person: I have seen many mothers firmly grabbing their children while walking when they stop to watch something or squeezing their hands firmly when they do anything wrong. What do you think the child will think of himself? He will think that he is an unworthy little thing!!
• Encourage him to take risks: If your child tries to climb a chair, don’t just run and stop him, put your hands around him without touching him and let him try. Of course, in some cases this may not be possible, but whenever you can you should encourage him rather than shelter and scold him for taking risks.
• Compliment his achievements: When your child makes a minor achievement, like completing a puzzle, give him a chocolate, clap your hands or do anything else that encourages him to achieve more. This will result in both a confident and a motivated child.
• Lying to your child: Not only will lying to the child make him grow up distrusting everyone, it will also damage his self-confidence. If you tell your child that a toy is bad (because you found it expensive) he may not believe you and may think that, because you are lying to him, he's not that important. Tell him the truth, that the toy is too expensive and that your budget is limited. Let him feel that you are sharing the truth with him.

It's All About Making Him Feel That He Is Important

All of the previous points can be summarized in one point: make him feel that he is an important and worthy being and treat him as a person and not as a child. You will find that your child will grow up having solid self-confidence.

2knowmyself is not a simple article website nor it’s a place where you will find shallow fixes, but it’s a place where you will find effective techniques that are backed by psychology and that are presented in obvious and understandable format. If you think that this is some kind of marketing hype then see what other visitors say about 2knowmyself.The book How to make someone fall in love with you was released by 2knowmyself.com; the book will dramatically increase your chance of letting someone fall in love with you.

Did that help?

Yes, but as a parent, I myself lack self-confidence. How can I build it?

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