“Parents need to fill a child’s bucket of self-esteem
so high that the rest of the world can’t poke
enough holes to drain it dry.” ~Alvin Price
Why do You Need to Pay Attention to This Post?
Whether the kids are excited for this or not, the new school year is just around the corner. While children learn many wonderful things at school, they are also often exposed to other kids, teachers, and situations that can greatly impact their lives – and not always for the better!
It is vital that your kids’ “self-esteem bucket” is filled to overflowing so they can withstand the turbulence of childhood.
What is Self-Esteem, Anyway?
In a nutshell, self-esteem is the opinion you have of yourself. This can be good or it can be bad. We form this internal opinion from feedback from external sources – our parents, friends, teachers, and other people who influence our lives.
Why is Self-Esteem So Important?
Self-esteem is our perception of ourselves and our own self-worth. It determines what we think we are capable of, whether we are “worthy” to have, be, do, or live our dreams.
A strong self-esteem will make you feel ready to take on the world and fill you with a sure knowledge that you are a divine creature with infinite potential.
A poor self-esteem will make you feel fear, doubt, and worry. You will be afraid to try things, you will tear yourself down, and live your life in a state of misery–feelings of unworthiness will swallow up the very spark of life that burns within each of us.
I Was My Own Worst Enemy
As a young child, I had very poor self-esteem. If you ranked it on a scale of 1 to 10, I would have been a negative -100! It was that bad and it only got worse as I got older.
How on earth does a young child develop a “negative” self-esteem? It all started when I was in the first grade on the way home from school and the neighborhood bully decided I was a prime target and began calling me “ugly” every time he saw me.
This was absolutely devastating for that little 6-year-old girl. I started to withdraw and question myself and whether I was “good enough” for things. This got progressively worse as the years past, and I kept attracting new friends who reinforced the feelings I had that I was ugly, unattractive, not good enough, less than everyone else, etc.
This set the stage for some very rough teenage years, to say the very least.
So What Do You Do?
There are many things you can do as a parent for your children to fill your child’s self-esteem bucket so high that the world can’t poke enough holes to drain it dry, as Alvin Price said in the quote at the beginning of this post.
Over the next several weeks, I am going to cover 7 different ways to help fill your child’s self-esteem bucket full to overflowing in just 60 Seconds a day. Here is a sneak preview of these 7 techniques that will change your child’s life:
- Model Self-Respect
- Treat each child as an individual
- Your child is not his actions
- Provide opportunities to be responsible and make decisions
- Teach enjoyment of every day life
- Provide praise rather than criticism
- We become what we think about
Stay tuned for this important series to learn how 60 Second Parenting will help you to raise confident, compassionate kids in just 60 seconds a day.
Book Update
I’ve been working feverishly with my publisher the past several months on my book, Raising Remarkable Kids. This book is going to be an essential guide for parents to raise happy, intelligent, compassionate kids and give them the tools they need to prepare them to succeed in today’s world.
All our efforts are paying off!! The book is almost ready to send to the editor and I we are working on the book cover! It’s all coming together and I can’t wait to share this book with you!
