As a parent of two fairly well adjusted young adults, I can wholeheartedly agree with these four easy ways to make sure your child has the best possible start in life & grow to face the challenges that life inevitably throws at them. We use many of them on the mats in the Do Jang so we know they work:
Give them responsibilities round the house
Give your child jobs around the home & reward/incentivise them. It doesn’t have to be monetary - it could just be an extra 10 minutes on the iPad. If they have an interest, focus it on this area. Eg: if they like cooking, jobs such as setting the table or cooking together can be helpful & rewarding.
Responsibilities around the home can give kids a sense of productivity, usefulness, success & confidence.
Compliment & encourage them
Compliments & praise are often overused, especially in a world where stand out success is often not encouraged for fear of hurting the feelings of the rest of the corded middle ground. Think sports day where everyone is a winner. Praise is highly effective at times when it matters.
Over-praising or over-complimenting a child when they are not even trying can lower the bar & create unrealistic low standards. When giving genuine compliments, make it specific & avoid making false statements.
That’s not to say you cannot find the light in every situation - If a child is not great at a particular skill that they enjoy, focus on other aspects of value such as their perseverance or work ethic instead.
Let them work through challenges themselves
All children hit rough patches where parents will feel the urge to help solve their problems or remove challenges for them.
This removes opportunities to problem-solve & cope with issues themselves. They become less resilient & it can start a downward self-fulfilling prophesy. We see lots of ‘helicopter parents’ in the Centre only too willing to rescue their child from a challenge. Allowing children to make decisions, using their best judgment to work through healthy challenges, will help build self-confidence in the future.
Sign your child up to our Martial Arts Programme
Martial Arts is a great outlet to help your child build their confidence. As I said above, we use the ways described above to build our students into the leaders of the future.
Our classes are structured to help children train in martial arts AND boost children's self-confidence, self-esteem, discipline & much, much more.
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