BUILDING CONFIDENCE FOR KIDS

 Foreword 

Confidence is extremely important for a child to develop in the early stages of their life. It is important because it is needed in order to overcome many obstacles that your child will face in life. It is the job of the parent of the child to help the child build self-confidence. There are many different ways that you can help your child build confidence.

Building your child’s self-confidence will not only make them feel good about themselves, but also prepare them for the future as well. You may find yourself asking, what can I do to give my child higher self-confidence? The answer is not difficult and in fact there are several things you can do on a daily basis that will help and they will only take a few minutes.

The following book will provide you with some helpful information on the importance of building self-confidence and ways in which to do so. Make sure to pay close attention and take in all the information and building your child’s confidence will be a much easier task. 

Building Confidence for Kids 

Chapter 1: 

Confidence Basics 

Synopsis 

If you are new to parenting, there are probably many things that you are not completely sure of how to do. One of these things may be how important building confidence in your child is or how to build confidence. Do not worry; just as every other challenge you have faced in your life, it is achievable. All you need to do is learn some helpful techniques and set aside some extra time for your child and building their self-confidence will be as easy as a walk in the park. 

The Basics 

A person’s confidence levels as an adult are greatly impacted by the level of confidence that they had as a child. This is one of the main reasons why it is so important that you instill a healthy amount of confidence into your child. With a little bit of effort and time, your child will surely develop this crucial life skill. 

 There are a few things that as a parent you will need to do. The following are some examples: 

Always Make Time: 

It is important that you always make time for your child, no matter how busy you are! Showing that your child comes before everything else is an excellent way of building a child’s self-confidence and self-worth. It is advised to take the time to schedule activities with your child that can help with the process of building their confidence. This could be taking them to do something they are good at or maybe even taking them to try something new. This will show them that they are talented which is a great confidence booster. One example could be taking a child to the park for a game of ball. If your child is not into sports, take them to an event that will allow them to show their knowledge on things and always be sure to show how impressed you are. 

Don’t Be Too Hard:

Although it is important not to be too easy on your child, it is also important not to be too tough on your child as well. Being too easy on your child will likely not instill proper morals in a child or teach them to be responsible, on the other hand, being too tough will likely lead to low selfconfidence because a child will feel as if they never do anything right. You as a parent must find the middle ground and be equal with your discipline. Not every child will respond to the same type of parenting so it is important to experiment and see what works best when it comes to building your child’s confidence. 

Be a Positive Example: 

It is your job as a parent to set a positive example for your child and to be a role model. One of the personality traits that your child will likely learn from you is your level of self-confidence. It is important that you always appear as if you have a situation under control and that you completely believe in yourself. Also, never talk negatively about yourself in front of your child because this will likely cause them to develop the same habit. 

Watch Out For Bullies: 

Bullying is becoming increasingly more popular. This is likely stemming from the fact that kids can bully one another from any time and any place, thanks to social media. Bullying is probably one of the quickest ways a child’s self-confidence can be destroyed. Bullies often times suffer from low confidence in themselves, in order to try to make themselves feel better they try to lower other’s confidence as well. This is why you must watch out for the signs of your child being bullied and put an immediate end to it! A few examples of behaviors you child may exhibit while being bullied are: 

 Suddenly no longer wants to go to school 

 Depression 

 Anxiety 

 Fear 

 Less Social Interactions 

 Not seeming Like Themselves 

 Not Wanting to Talk About Their School Day 

If you notice any of these signs you need to take immediate action! 

Chapter 2:

 Let your Child Know You Believe In Them 

Synopsis 

The next step that we will touch base with for creating confidence in your child is letting your child know that you believe in them. This is actually a very simple task to do and requires little effort. However, it is still very important. There are many different ways that you can let your child know you believe in them. With enough effort and time, you will be able to find activities that greatly improve your child’s confidence while showing that you believe in them.

Many people may be unsure of how to perform this step effectively and may not have an idea of where to begin. Are you one of these people? If the answer is yes do not worry, children do not come with guidebooks but you can get advice from places such as this book. Continuing reading and pay close attention to the next chapter because it will give you some valuable tips to help you build your child’s self-confidence. 

Show That You Believe In Them 

The process of showing your child that you believe in them can be completed in many different ways. Often times, what works for one child will not have the same impact on another. This means that you will likely have to try different things until you find something that works. If you do not know where to start, a few examples are provided below:

 Encourage Your Child to Try New Things:

Encouraging your child to try new things is an excellent way of building their confidence and showing them that you fully believe in their abilities to accomplish something. Pay attention to the things that your child tells you, especially when it comes to what they would like to do but do not feel that they would be any good at it. Use this situation as a way to show you believe in them by encouraging them to try. Tell them that you believe in them and that they can do anything they set their mind to. It is important to explain to them that they may not be great at something when they first start but over time and with practice they will get much better. 

Push Them Out of Their Comfort Zone: 

When a child is stuck in a comfort zone their chances of building their selfconfidence are much slimmer than that of a child who is always challenging themselves. Teaching your child to challenge their self will greatly improve their self-confidence while at the same time showing them that you believe that they can do anything. 

Brag about Your Child: 

Bragging about your child can be a great way to build their confidence and show them that you believe in them. This is especially true if the bragging is done in front of them. Tell other people of their accomplishments and the things you think they will achieve in future as this will surely boost their confidence. Do not brag too much though because this may cause the child to become big headed. 

 Chapter 3: 

Acknowledge Achievements and Fears 

Synopsis 

Acknowledging your child’s fears, as well as their achievements, is vital in the role of helping your child develop a healthy level of self-confidence. This is especially true when a child triumphs over their fear in order to accomplish something. It is important to remember that while trying to build a child’s confidence, every little accomplishment should be noted. No matter how small the task is your child will greatly benefit from you acknowledging their accomplishment. 

The following chapter will give you some helpful information that can assist you with acknowledging for child’s achievements and fears. It will serve as your guide so pay careful attention and make sure to retain all the information as it will surely help your child in becoming a self-confident person. 

Praise Their Achievements, Understand Their Fears 

A parent’s role of praising their child’s achievements as well as understanding their child’s fears are two topics that we will go over in this chapter. It is important for a parent to understand that both are equally important when it comes to the process of instilling confidence into their child.

We will go over the importance of and the ways to praise a child’s achievements first. 

Praise Their Achievements: 

Praising your child’s achievements, no matter how small it may seem to you, is vital in the process of creating confidence. This will make your child feel good about their self and will also create a self-confidence because they will feel as if they are constantly doing things that impress you.

Praising your child’s achievements can actually have more of a positive outcome than constantly pointing out the negative things your child might do. This is not surprising since always pointing out the wrong thing a child does makes them feel as if they cannot do anything right. On the other hand, always praising your child’s achievements and not talking to them about mistakes that they are making will have negative outcomes as well. This is because the child will feel as if they can do nothing wrong. It is important to find a healthy balance between pointing out mistakes and praising achievements.

When praising your child’s achievements, you must be careful to spoil or over treat them. If you provide your child with a large reward every time 15 they complete a small task, they will naturally begin to think that this will happen every time they do something. This can lead to negative behaviors when the rewards stop as the child will be confused about why they no longer receive a reward for a certain task. It is advised that rewards be saved for bigger accomplishments. When it comes to smaller achievements, verbal recognition or a pat on the back will suffice just fine. 

Understand Your Child’s Fears: 

Understanding your child’s fears also play a large role in the development of your child’s self-confidence. You may be asking, how can fear make my child more confident in their self? The answer is the fact that overcoming fear can boost a person’s self-confidence dramatically. While trying to overcome fears it is important that you first understand them.

You do not want to set your child up for failure. Some of the things they may be scared to attempt may actually be too difficult for them. One of the worst things you can do while trying to build a child’s confidence is put them in a situation where they will not win. You need to talk to your child and discover what it is that they are afraid of attempting and determine if it would be a good idea to push your child toward facing those fears. 

Once you understand your child’s fears and have determined the possible negative and positive outcomes of facing them, you may make the decision to motivate your child to face those fears. Accomplishing a task that a child once feared they would fail is probably one of the best ways to build their self-confidence. This is because this process shows them that they can do things, no matter how hard they are or scared they were, if they just put their mind to it.

It is important to not push your child in to facing to many of their fears. Pushing your child too hard may result in an outcome completely different from one you desire. It may make the child anxious which could have an impact on the rest of their life. This make actually further lower their selfconfidence because the anxiety may keep them from being able to accomplish other tasks that they could do effortlessly at one point. 

Chapter 4: 

Teach Them to Learn From Errors 

Synopsis 

There is no one in our world is perfect so therefore everyone makes mistakes and errors at times. The important thing is that we learn to develop ourselves and learn lessons from our mistakes. We must then use these lessons to keep us from making future mistakes of a similar type. It is all part of the growing process. It is the same for a child who needs to build their self-confidence. 

The following chapter contains useful information that will serve as guide for you while you teach your child the importance of learning from their errors and how this relates to their self-confidence. 

Help Them Learn 

Your child has been in this world much less time than you have. Therefore, it only makes sense that the responsibility of teaching your child how to learn from mistakes fall upon you. As a parent, you have surely had to do this many times in the past and have much more experience with it than your child. As stated before, everyone makes mistakes and no one is perfect. What divides people into those who succeed and those who don’t is whether a person learns from their mistakes or not. 

Building your child’s self-confidence is possible through success and success is possible through your child learning from their mistakes. You must teach your child not to be too hard on themselves or beat themselves up when they make a mistake. You must teach them to look at the situation from a logical standpoint and determine the things that they could have done different in order to get a more desirable outcome. You will be surprised at how much this will boost your child’s self-confidence. This process will mature your child’s thinking process and they will be more confident because they will know that even if they do not succeed at something the first time, they will determine their mistakes, try again and succeed. 

Not teaching your child about learning from their mistakes will eventually have negative outcomes on your child’s self-confidence. If your child does not learn from their mistakes, they will likely keep making the same mistakes. This can make a child feel as if they are stuck in a rut or like success is hopeless. They will feel like they cannot do anything and their motivation toward life will slowly spiral downward. A perfect example of 19 this would be most people in correctional institutions, whether adult or juvenile. If you ask most of the people in there, they will likely say that they never had anyone teach them the value of learning from their mistakes. These people continued to make the same mistakes until they felt as if life was hopeless and completely gave up on trying to be successful. You do not want this happen to your child. In order for you to avoid a situation like this you must teach your child the importance of learning from their errors.

Chapter 5: 

Learn To Accept Who Your Child Is 

Synopsis 

Accepting a child for who they are is usually not a difficult task for a parent to perform. On the other hand, there are instances where certain things about a child really bother their parent or parents. This can be extremely damaging to a child’s self-confidence because their parents are supposed to be a source of continues approval and affection. There are certain things that a child not be able to change about themselves and you will have to accept them if you ever want your child to be happy and have high levels of self-confidence. 

The following chapter will provide you with some examples of types of things some parents may have to learn to accept. Keep in mind, some of these things may be difficult to accept or may even go against your religious background, but if you want your child to be confident and succeed you must accept them. 

Accept Your Child for Who They Are 

There may be certain things about your child that you wish could be different. The truth is, your child cannot change certain things about their self. You cannot blame your child for who they are, they did not ask to be brought into this world, you made the decision to give them life. Your child may also do certain things in their life that you do not approve of but you must accept them as reality and figure out a way to help your child change the behaviors. 

The following are some examples of types of things you child cannot change about their self. 

Sexuality: 

is probably the area where the largest amount of parents have a hard time accepting their child for who they are. This may be due to moral stand points or it may be due to religious backgrounds and personal beliefs. No matter what the reason is, you must learn to accept your child for who they are. Showing your child that you love them for who they are will greatly improve their self-confidence and make them feel much better about their self. Apart from this, trying to force your child to change something about their self such as sexuality will cause many difficulties for a child in life. They will most likely become confused about who they truly are and this will surely destroy their future and confidence.

Likes and Dislikes:

You have to learn to accept your child’s likes, dislikes, and interests. You have to understand that just because you want your son to grow up to be a football player or your daughter to be a beauty queen does not mean they want the same for their life. You need to encourage your child to do the things they like in life, even if they do not adhere to your set dreams and goals of your child. After all, it is their life and they are the one who has to live it, parents are just passangers on the journey used as guidance.

Accept Your Child’s Strengths and Weaknesses:

It is important for you as a parent to understand that it may not be possible for your child to live up to all of your expectations. You must remember to be realistic with your expectations for your child and to be understanding when they cannot live up to one of them. If you constantly show disapproval when a child cannot meet one of your expectations, you will destroy the child’s confidence and make them feel like a lesser person or worthless. Showing your child that you will accept them as long as they try their best in everything they do will surely boost their confidence and make them a happier person with a more successful life. 

These were just a few examples of the countless things you may have to accept about your child one day. As stated before, you do not have to like everything your child does but it is important that you learn how to accept it, not only for the confidence and well-being of child, but also for your own as well. 

Chapter 6: 

Take an Interest In Your Child’s Life And Provide Opportunities For Positive Growth 

Synopsis

While your child is growing it is extremely important for you to be actively involved in their life and provide opportunities for growth if you want them to be full of confidence and be successful. Spending time with your child is really all that this step requires. Do some activities with your child that they enjoy and use this time to learn more about your child’s life. The more you know about what is going on in your child’s life the better you will be able to help them in building their confidence.

The following chapter will provide you with some helpful hints for being involved in your child’s life and opening up opportunities for them.

Be Involved 

It is important that as a parent you make sure to be involved in your child’s life. This does not mean when it is convenient for you, it means at all times, even when difficult. You may have to do things you are not interested in or attend events that you may find boring. It does not matter, you need to be involved. Being involved in your child’s life shows them that you truly care for them and at the same time builds their self-worth and self-confidence. 

You need to ask your child questions about their life and about how they feel everything is going for them. You need to try to figure out the areas where you can help them to build their confidence and open new opportunities for them during these discussions. A great time to do this would be during dinner, with the family eating as a whole at the dining room table and not in front of the TV on the couch. While it is important to get out and do things that you child is interested in while trying to be more involved with their life, you need to set specific family times that the entire family spends time as a whole. This greatly nurtures the health of a family relationship and makes your child more likely to open up to you about their life. If your child is open with you they will tell you what is holding their confidence back which allows you to help them gain their confidence back and be successful. 

You need to take extra care to not pry into your child life to deeply. Trying to be too involved in your child’s life might make your child feel as if you are invading their life or trying to control it. You must keep in mind that it is their life and although you may not agree with some of their decisions, you have to let them learn on their own. Having a healthy amount on involvement without trying to invade your child’s life is a perfect recipe for a happy family and a confident child. 

Chapter 7: 

Why It Is Important To Provide Responsibilities 

Synopsis 

Responsibilities in life are very important for a child, especially when it comes to building their confidence. You must be realistic with the responsibilities you set for your child because you do not want to doom them to failure. Setting responsibilities that are too difficult may result in failure which will further lower your child’s confidence. On the other hand, a child who performs their responsibilities correctly will be granted better self-confidence. 

The following chapter will give you some ideas on where to start when it comes to setting responsibilities for your child.

Set Responsibilities, Be Realistic 

While setting responsibilities for your child, it is extremely important that you set realistic responsibilities. It is advised that you start with simple responsibilities and work up toward the larger ones once the smaller ones can be executed with minimal effort. 

The ideal basic responsibilities to start off with for children would be tasks such as cleaning their room and making their bed. After they can handle this on a daily basis, you may want to begin adding additional responsibilities such as doing the dishes a few times a week or vacuuming the carpet. 

As a child gets older and can handle more responsibility, it is time to make their responsibilities more difficult. One idea that may be suitable is getting your child a pet. Something smaller than a dog is advised because most people do not realize how much care a dog really needs. It may be better to start off with an animal such as a hamster or some fish. The act of having to feed this animal daily, while taking care of its other needs, will help your child to become more responsible. Properly completing their responsibilities will also create more self-confidence for them since they will see they are capable of doing challenging things. 

Instilling responsibilities into your child’s daily life will be a challenge at first, but with determination and effort it will be effective in boosting your child’s confidence. 

Chapter 8: 

The Disadvantages of Poor Self Confidence 

Synopsis

A child with poor self-confidence will almost certainly have a much more challenging life than that of a confident child. Having good confidence causes a person to have certain traits in their character while having low self-confidence creates negative traits in people’s characters. 

The following chapter will give you a few examples of the countless disadvantages that low confidence can have on your child’s life. 

The Dangers of Low Self-Confidence 

There are many different disadvantages that come with having low confidence levels. These disadvantages can have a huge negative impact on a person’s current life as well as their future. That is why it is so important to instill high levels of confidence into your child, even from very early ages.

Some examples of the negative impacts low self-confidence can have on a child are as follows:

Scared to Try New Things: 

If your child has low levels of self-confidence they will likely find it difficult to try new things. The fear of failure will take them over, time and time again. This fear will stop them dead in their tracks every time they think of trying to do something new.

Bad Social Impacts: 

If your child suffers from low self-confidence they will likely experience difficulty with their social life in the future. A task as simple as approaching someone to say hello can feel impossible if a person has low self-confidence. In order to be able to speak to other people and keep your head held high you much have good self-confidence. This can also extend into the classroom and your child’s learning. For example, if your child has very low levels of confidence they will likely be afraid of approaching a teacher and asking for help with what they don’t understand. They would rather just take the failing grade because they do not have to interact socially in this way.

Emotional Issues: 

Certain emotional problems will likely be caused by long periods of low confidence. These emotional problems may include loss of happiness, anxiety, depression, irritability, and in extreme cases, suicide. Suicide most often occurs when a child feels as if they are nothing and will never be anything. Sometimes they hide this feeling from their parents and other times their parents do not pay enough attention, either way it is terrible that a child would do this.

All of these emotional issues can have impacts on your child’s present and future life. That is why it should be your top priority as the parent of your child to ensure that they feel great about themselves and that they have high levels of self-confidence. Just keep in mind all the negative consequences that were discussed in this chapter while remembering that there are countless more and you will surely be motivated to start helping your child to better their confidence. 

Wrapping Up

 In conclusion, your child might be currently suffering from low levels of self-worth and self-confidence but it does not have to be that way forever. You as a parent must take the necessary steps that will ensure that your child has a bright future full of potential and opportunities. The first place to start with this is to make sure your child feels good about their self and has healthy levels of self-worth and self-confidence because these are two traits that make life’s challenges bearable and possible of overcoming. Without the building block of confidence, your child will likely be lost once it comes time for them to experience the real world. Without the capability of approaching unfamiliar people of taking on new tasks, the simplest tasks in life can be made a hundred times more difficult. Confidence is more than just an admired trait. To be truly successful in life and to be happy with their self, your child must learn to be confident and their self and to believe in their self and you must show them how to do so. While motivating your child to build their self-confidence, remember the tips and tricks as well as the advice you have received from this book as it will be a valuable guide to assist you thorough the process. As well, make sure to keep in mind the negative outcomes that can become reality if your child doesn’t have a healthy level of confidence. I hope you enjoyed this book and that it will assist you with your battles, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for reading this book.