Raising Confident Girls
Aug
14
As I was playing with Sariah I poked her tummy and said you have a big tummy which made her laugh each time I said that. Afterwards I thought about how soon she will start learning about body image and how important it will be for me to help Sariah and Rebekah become confident girls.
I remember when my little sister was only 3 she started to become self concious. One time her friend who was only 5 or 6 asked me if I thought she was pretty, I told her that of course she was and she replied with I hope my friends think I am as well. A friend of mine recently told me that her 3 year old daughter already knows that ‘fat’ is not what she wants to be.
It seems that our little girls constantly see that skinny girls are considered pretty and overhear their moms talking to other people about how they are thinking of taking diet pills or do other things to loose weight or change something about themselves.
For those of you who have older girls, what do you do to help increase their self confidence?
August 14th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Great topic!
I never really thought about this until Lindsay was in Kindergarten. She had an accident at church where the podium fell on her head, causing a huge gush. She ended up needing 7 stitches. The surgeon that stitched her up said that her scar may go away, but then again it may not. That got me thinking of the importance of focusing on their strengths, their abilitites. Not their looks of physical appearance. There is nothing wrong with telling your children that they look pretty or that they have nice hair/eyes/smile/weight. But to focus on that can have bad repercussions if something happens in the future.
So we focus on what she can do at home, at school, at church, in sports. I feel that when we focus on her abilities and strengths, they become confident and, as a matter of fact, we have a framed quote in their room that says “If you are confident, you are beautiful.”
Again, great topic!
[Reply]
August 15th, 2008 at 4:05 am
constant praises for every little tiny thing they did or did not do, with constantly giving them space of their own, even at such young age, they do grow their confidence and their independence…
[Reply]