All children, no matter how young they are, have feelings. As they grow and become aware of their own feelings, we have to help them realize that other people have feelings too. Children who have been loved and respected will find it easier to love themselves and love other people around them too.
Strong, secure and affectionate attachments are the key to helping children develop a good self esteem and positive self image. There are some ways that you can help your child develop a good self esteem. Value children for what they are and not what they look like or what they do or what you want them to become.
Like all of us, a child needs love, security and trust. These come from deep and secure attachments with family and friends. If you portray a good self image yourself and exhibit respect for all, you will help your child to do so too. Avoid having unrealistic expectations from your child; remember your child too needs to feel some success in what they do. So let them do what they are capable of without expecting too much.
Encourage them to learn from their mistakes instead of belittling your child with derogatory remarks for small errors. Remember all children need love, trust and respect; but most of all children need clear, consistent and concise boundaries or else they may be confused and test your patience by doing things that you have not made provisions for.
Apart from all these, you need to be positive with your kids but never too positive. Be kind when disciplining but never too kind. You just need to be balanced and maintain discipline with kindness and firmness. If you do so, you will not be reinforcing misbehavior. You will be disciplining your child just right.