Building Confident Children

Let them do it themselves!

I have three children of my own and I know how hard it is to watch a child struggle. Getting dressed, tying their shoes, buttoning a shirt… Not to mention how strapped we usually are for time. It’s so much easier to just take over and do it for them.

Please don’t.

Find a time, when you’re not rushing out the door, and let your child do these
things on their own. Help them help themselves by teaching them how – not by doing it for them. As they grown, children will naturally try to be more dependent if we let them. When we don’t we not only create helpless humans, but we crush their confidence.

Teachers know the magic of watching “the light come on” when a child masters a subject on their own. As parents, sometimes we let our natural instinct to protect take over when it might be more appropriate to stand back.

Let them learn to read.

Let them add, subtract, multiply and divide.

By the time your child is ten, you can teach them to do a load of laundry. Sew on a button. Cook a simple meal.

And why not? You are spending quality time and teaching skills that will last a life time.