Confidence could somewhat be described as a talent, you either possess it or you don’t. It’s really not something that can be taught in the classroom or learnt by a set of rules. We aren’t born confident, neither does it come naturally and the words often uttered by a parent can either make or break a child’s self confidence.

As a parent, it is your responsibility to help build your kids confidence ranging from sleepovers at a friends, to dealing with various issues at school and at the playground. It will be also good to share similar stories from your childhood especially when a situation arises so they don’t feel odd or weird. Positive thinking, practice and training will also help to boost their confidence but this should not over compensate for when they perform badly or misbehave, as it’ll essentially lose its power. Even after instilling all these, as a parent you’ll need to take a backseat and see if its working and if not try other methods. However, you don’t want to take ownership and control of their life, you need to let them learn and experience things (life) for themselves with you lending guidance and support every step of the way, as they’ll be looking up to you for strength, dependence and the fact that they are able to rely on you where necessary.

Being overprotective over your kids doesn’t often help and sometimes this may hinder their independence, for instance when they have their first few bike riding lessons, its best you let them learn at their own pace and avoid hovering over them for too long hence they feel like they are not good enough or can’t handle things on their own.

As a family, it is crucial that you ensure family time together such as eating together, family holidays, these help to build their self-confidence and self-esteem.

Finally, making sure that you help them understand that mistakes do happen and they do not have to be perfect as constant intervention prevents them from learning for themselves.

Quick question: What other methods would you use to ensure that your kid(s) have the required self confidence to go through life or school to ensure they are not bullied or belittled by their peers.

Do you think you’re doing enough at the moment? Is it below or above average?

Do you pay enough attention even to the slightest occurrence that happens in your child’s life or do you dismiss it?