There are many jobs that a parent has, and boosting your child’s self-esteem is one of the most important. However, there are great ways to do this, and equally, there are ways that might seem good, but can actually do more harm than you realise. Overpraising is an example of this. You might not think it’s possible to praise your child too much, but if you tell them they’re doing great even when they’re not, they’ll never grow and develop, and when they are criticised as they get older, they won’t know how to handle it.

With that in mind, here are some of the best ways to boost your child’s self-esteem that will help them and that are simple to do.

Step Back

Children want to do things by themselves; they want to learn and show that they are independent. The problem is that parents, in their effort to protect their kids, get in the way of this sometimes. They can start taking over and stopping the child from trying new things and learning how to do important tasks.

If you want to boost your child’s self-esteem, it’s crucial that you step back. This won’t be easy if you’ve been a rather protective parent so far, but it is vital you learn how to do it. One way to start is if your child goes on school residential trips. This will give you a chance to be separated for a few days, and your child can try all kinds of things by themselves. When they get back, you’ll know they are capable, and they’ll feel braver and more confident.

Let Them Make Their Own Choices

As above, this is hard for parents, but it’s an important way to boost your child’s self-esteem. It also means they’ll be able to make crucial decisions in their adult lives (and even as older children and teenagers) because they’ll understand how to weigh up all the pros and cons of each choice and opt for the route that makes the most sense.

Start small by offering your child a choice between two types of vegetables for dinner, or between two books to read at bedtime. As they become more confident, you ask to add more options to the mix, and offer a choice of four different vegetables, or offer them a pick of three outfits. Help them make the choice by teaching them to look at the positives and negatives of each option, and soon enough they’ll be doing this without even knowing they’re computing all the outcomes.

Encourage Them To Pursue Their Interests

All children are going to be interested in something more than most other things. This could be dinosaurs, a particular sport, magic, writing stories, playing with Lego, and millions (potentially) of other things. Whatever it is your child is into, you should encourage them to pursue it as much as possible. Even if you don’t enjoy the same thing or you can’t see any value in it, if you allow your child to really explore their own passions, they’ll become a lot more confident in saying what they like or not in life. This is a good life lesson.

As well as this, your encouragement will help them to enjoy their hobby even more. They might fall out of love with it at some point, and you can be there for them at that time too – don’t try to force them to do something they don’t like, as this might diminish their self-esteem.