Archive for the 'Parenting' Category

These days, there are many things that can harm your child’s self-esteem.

In addition to the traditional self-esteem busters of schoolyard bullies, critical teachers and high expectations are imposed by a variety of different social pressures like the pressure to be thin and the pressure to be cool.

Many children might start to feel that they are coming up short in life. As a parent, you might become concerned about your child when he or she says “I can’t do it.”

Since you care about your child’s happiness and since you might fear that your child’s low self esteem might lead to problems down the road, its understandable that you will be willing to do anything you can to help your child boost his or her self-esteem.

Show that you have good self-esteem

Much of your child’s self-esteem comes from you, especially when your child is younger. Your child can pick up on whether or not you have strong positive values, confidence, creativity and curiosity.

Have realistic expectations

Be aware of what your child is capable of. Focus more on your child’s self growth than on your child’s accomplishments. Parents with disproportionately high expectations will cause your child to become depressed when he or she fails to meet your expectations.

Parenting is a challenging and also tough task for every one, which makes every parent to set their terms and conditions.

Parents always have best intentions in their mind while teaching discipline to you and they don’t want to hurt their children intentionally.

However, there can be some parents with too strict rules, which can certainly curtail child’s growth and independence. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to deal with such parents, but it can a bit tough to handle.

Evaluate your behavior

This is the first step that you have to take while dealing with strict parents. Check whether your behavior is appropriate or not.

Do you remember the principle “for every action there is equal and opposite reaction”? This principle is absolutely true when dealing with strict persons.

Change your behavior

At times your behavior is absolutely responsible for your parent’s action. So, if you think changing your behavior or making adjustments can help the situation, make an effort to do it.

Ask help from others

Respected adults like your teacher or any counselor, family relatives or even friends can help you in solving your problem. Well, seek help from them. Sometimes, this can also help you alleviate tensed situations in your life.

There can be as many good behaviors as bad as far as students are concerned, and it is vital for parents and educators to be aware of what these are, and how they can be managed.

One thing to remember, however, is that no matter what labels may be applied to each behavior; one is labeling the behavior and not the child.

All children misbehave for some reason, like for example, for attention, or for revenge against a slight, or perhaps because they feel inadequate.

The student may cheat at this homework, may copy, and may lie about it.  He may use his over active imagination to fabricate tall tales and tell them with conviction so that he may escape punishment.

He may be prone to exaggeration, and he may never accept blame for his own actions and rather, try to pass them off on someone else. He may be a consummate alibi or excuse maker, coming up with creative and innovative for not having done what he should have, or having done what he should not have.

This student will never complete his homework and class work; he will always have a pat alibi ready and may convince the teachers of its validity every time, if the teacher did not know better.

Raising a responsible child is a challenging task for a parent.

Parents have been very responsible in all the areas of child growth as the children will try to imitate their parents at every stage of life.

So, for raising a responsible child, you have to implement certain rules and regulations in your day to day life.

1. Let the child feel responsible for the work she is allotted. With this, the child experience how important is the task whether it is a small or a big.
2. Encourage the child for every small issue she raises. If the child is wrong then make her understand why the issue is not correct in a pleasing way so that the child will not get agitated.
3. Provide good opportunities for the children at every stage of their life so that the children will get habituated of selecting the right option amongst many.
4. Teach your child to be organized from childhood. It includes keeping their books in their shelves, arranging their bags etc.
5. Guide them in following good and healthy habits which plays safe for them all the time.

Does your child feel embarrassed to talk to strangers? Does he worry excessively about what others will think about him? Does he always tend to avoid social situations? Is he always hesitant about making friends?

Is your child shy? Remember, shyness is normal, but only to a certain extent.

Shyness stems from an exaggerated sense of self, and generally, the shy child feels easily embarrassed and worries about what the other person will think of him, or of any particular actions of his.

Although it may be true that shyness cannot be cured, one can learn how to handle it, so that one may be able to cope with the various situations that life hands out.

Also remember, extreme shyness can, if left untreated, turn into what is known as ‘social phobia’, which describes an intense fear of social situations, and the child will be left with a phobia of attending public functions and social gatherings, leading to a fear of interviews, of getting a job, of meeting people, of any kind of situation at all that may involve an interaction with a group of strangers, in a strange environment.

Possessing a positive attitude in life will help you tide through many a disaster, and conquer many a storm.

If you are an individual with a positive attitude, it means that you are a person who focuses on the positive side of life, while trying to ignore the negative, at least to a certain extent.

Adopting a positive attitude will help you cope better with your life and with the problems it deals you with unfailing regularity, and helps you deal with stress and its related problems.

Remember, nobody is ever born with a completely positive attitude; it is something that has to be developed and polished over a period of time, and the extent to which you can do it would again depend upon your positive attitude towards life.

As an adult, and as a responsible parent, it may be entirely up to you to make sure that you develop a positive attitude in your child, so that he can face the challenges of life as he grows into an adult.

Here are some tips to help influence your child into being the positive person that you are:

Little can touch your heart more than a plaintive child’s cry, “I don’t have any friends”.

Because your child is your responsibility, whenever your child wants or desires something, you want to do whatever you can to help them out and put a happy smile on his/her face.

If the reason for the depression is that s/he doesn’t have friends to play with, you will tend to feel worse and be desperate about doing something to help.

However, as much as you help them in their play, the disappointment remains in your child’s heart. Here are a few tips to help your child make friends and feel happier.

1. Observe your child’s play style

Whenever your kid is in a group with his/her peers, particularly at play time or a party, try to observe your kid’s behavior. Watch whether s/he is shy or hesitant to get involved in group activities or get too close to other kids. Once you get an idea about their play style, it will be easier for you to assist them with their problem.

2. Help your kid interact with others

Anxiety and fear are very normal feelings for both children and also adults. However, excessive anxiety or worry mainly affects your child’s personal, social and academic growth.

So, as a parent, it is your responsibility to help your children in developing self-confidence and skills to overcome anxieties and fears in their life.

Parenting a child, who is anxious, often makes you to feel anxious. But, once if you succeed in teaching them essential skills to overcome anxiety, it is possible that they don’t evolve into any kind of phobic reactions later in their life.

Here are certain useful techniques for you to assist your child in coping with his\her anxious behavior.

Understand the illness first!

Understand the nature of anxiety and fear in your child and how he\she responds to it. This can help you to find appropriate solution for your child’s problem.

Listen to your child’s feeling!

Always pay close attention to your child’s feelings and try to know the reason behind it. If you isolate your kid, it can foster them into low self-esteem and depression and as a result your children can suffer with depression and anxiety.