How To Build Confidence In Your Kids

I’ve always made it a parenting goal to build confidence in my kids in everything we do.

Confidence is something that I have struggled with personally. As a child and even now as an adult.

I knew going into having kids that I didn’t want them to face those same issues with confidence and self doubt.

I wanted them to grow up with self love, confidence, and the bravery to face all of life’s challenges head on.

So, building confidence in my kids is definitely one of my top priorities. There are plenty of easy ways we work on building confidence in our home and daily lives and I wanted to share a few of them with you.

This post contains affiliate links. However, all opinions are my own.

How do I teach my child self esteem?

Building confidence and self esteem go hand in hand.

If your child grows with a strong confidence it will be a positive boost to their self esteem.

Praise & Encouragement goes a long way

Pay attention to the good things!

If you are looking for the good you will find it. Praise the good things your kids do at every opportunity; an award at school, doing a chore without being asked, helping a sibling.

Small victories should be acknowledged as well. Being good at the doctor’s appointment or brushing their teeth at night.

There are many opportunities during the day to praise your kids.

Your kids want to know what you think, they want to make you proud.

Praise & encouragement will go a long way to building up confidence that will last a lifetime.

Try New Things With Your Kids

Let your kids see you trying new things, let them try those things with you.

Do you have a favorite hobby? Let your kids try and learn how to sew, rock climb, play the guitar. Find new, fun and creative ways to bond as a family in the process.

Not only are they going to learn a new skill or hobby, they will be gaining confidence in knowing that they can learn new skills and try new things.

On our recent trip to Disneyland my 7 year old fearlessly got on the Tower of Terror. We have never been afraid of taking him on theme park rides and that confidence has carried over.

Encourage Their Interests (Get Involved)

Does your child love Minecraft, Barbies, dance, or sports? 

Take this opportunity as a parent to get involved in what your child loves!

Dive headfirst right along with your child. If they LOVE dance, be a dance mom. If they LOVE soccer, be a soccer mom.

Take them to lessons, bake cookies for potlucks, sit front row at their dance recital.

Your support gives your child the confidence to succeed in what they love. 

Expressing interest in your child’s interest lets them feel safe, secure, and confident that they have your approval and think they are good enough.

Kids want you to experience things as they experience them. When you support whatever your child is into they are more confident about it. They will play that soccer game, chess tournament, or Pokemon battle better if they have your full support.

Let Your Kids Explore & Get Creative

Give your kids some room to explore. Trust them!

I get pretty protective over my kids and honestly in my neighborhood it’s not as safe as it once was for kids to ride their bikes down the street unattended. But,  there are different ways you can let your kids explore depending on your situation.

Let them lead a hike or walk the family dogs. Go camping and let them go explore and collect fire wood. If you have older kids let them try age appropriate things like baking or checking the mail.

Let your kids have as many opportunities as possible to be creative.

The more creative the better! Exposing them to a variety of ways they can use their creativity will help them find them find out what they are good at and what they love.

Starting at a young age give your kids books, art supplies, instruments. They may not like to do all of those things, but just giving them the ability to be creative builds their confidence.

Confidence Starts With the Parents

Although there are several factors that may contribute to your child’s confidence, it really starts with parents. Confident kids are confident because their parents are supportive, encouraging, and positive.

They are confident because their parents have put their trust into them.

Trust with your child is a big one!

As a parent you have a lot of power when it comes to building up confidence in your kids.

Think of ways you can build confidence in your home each week.

How can you build up your child who is struggling?

Is there a family activity or outing that could boost everyone’s confidence?

Parenting isn’t always easy and there are bound to be some mistakes made along the way. Luckily, building confidence is easy and creates opportunities for families to have some fun family bonding together.

Here are some children’s books that I love for building confidence:

Reading with your kids is just one more thing that you can do to build confidence. Whether your reading cat books or about confidence. Here are some of our favorite books about confidence below! Read here to find out how to get free or cheap children’s books about confidence.

Do you have any tips for raising confident kids? What do you think has the greatest impact on a child’s confidence?

Let’s discuss, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!

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