The Journey To Admiring Self

“All children should be taught to unconditionally accept, approve, admire, appreciate, forgive, trust, and ultimately, love their own person.”
― Asa Don Brown

To admire oneself seems to be the most difficult task  of the human race!

I don’t believe I am alone in saying that when I was a child I was criticised often by my well-meaning and loving father.  He was very strict and wanted so much for his daughters and son to grow up to be decent, intelligent, responsible adults.  I, too, wanted the same for my children and tried very hard to instill these virtues in them.

How do we teach our children to admire themselves?  It is such an important virtue that the child should be taught and one that I feel we fail to give to them.  We want our child to be self-confident, but not rude or insensitive to others.

Here are some tips that I have read and would like to share;

• For Babies – give lots of cuddles and smiles when baby cries.
• For Toddlers – let your child know that you see him or her as clever, special and valued.
• For Preschoolers – A balanced feedback is important, for example; ‘Alex is a faster runner than you, but you’re better at catching a ball’!  This lets the child feel pride in him or herself.
• For Primary School age – give extra love and cuddles at the end of the school day.  Show interest in their day spent at school; ask them what they did at school that day.  Teach your child about ‘fair play’.  Praise your child for what he or she is good at and let them know that you are proud of them for trying things that are very difficult.

It is definitely a ‘journey’ and we’ve all been there, I am sure!

Today we have the Internet which will surely influence our young children as they grow into adults.  Parents and loved ones have to work a little harder today to achieve a good outcome when raising our children, but it can be done!  Please also remember that children learn so much about self-esteem and self admiration from watching their parents.

It begins here, in childhood!  If we can only try our best to encourage self-esteem in these children the rewards will be so wonderful!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/admire/

Photos courtesy of;  https://www.google.ca/search?q=Images+of+Self