How to raise a confident girl child

Confidence sets kids up for lifelong success. It is key factors to helping children navigate through adulthood. Hence, for your girl child, it is super important to ensure that you groom them to have a positive self image, competent and super confident abilities, says Parenting enthusiast and founder Fabmum, Jayne Augoye.

Here are key ways to ensure that parent groom their girl child confidently:

Teach her you believe in her: Confidence comes from believing in oneself, and your kids get a first dose of this from you. This means that your position as a parent provides you a powerful influence on how your girl child (ren) learn to view themselves. Hence, make it a point of duty to point out the strengths that you think makes your girl child unique and orient her to hone these qualities patiently. Showering her with praises is another way to do this; find opportunities to praise her when she impresses you by finishing a demanding task, does something thoughtful from a place of empathy, or when she shows courage by performing in front of a crowd.

Build her Emotional Intelligence: You can teach your children to validate their emotions and provide them with a safe space to express their feelings by withholding your judgment and responding in empathy whenever they do so. It will lay a great foundation of trust and gives your girl child (ren) a sense of security; they know they can always turn to you without reservations whatsoever.

This is especially important, as your girls enter the perturbing teenage years where they tend to keep their feelings to themselves, as they navigate rockier situations such as peer pressure, academic stress and relationship drama. It’s also important to build their empathy muscles by training them always see things from different perspectives.

Be a confident role model: If you want your girl child to be confident, show her what confidence looks like. Keep in mind that your daughter is constantly observing you and looks to you to set an example; and so, you must always be aware of how you act and speak. She will notice when you bash your body, critique yourself or say things like “I can’t” or use inappropriate words. She’ll pick up on when you feel beautiful and feel proud of your accomplishments.

By all means, try not to talk down on yourself in your daughter’s presence. When she observes you are confident, she’s more likely to grow up confident herself.

Praise more than her looks: By all means, tell your daughter she’s beautiful; but teach her that there’s much more to her than her appearance. Offer her precise, genuine praise on her math or problem-solving skills, her proactiveness, effort and determination, her good sportsmanship, empathy and more.

Help your girl child find her interests and develop her talents: Children build confidence as they explore their unique interests and talents, particularly as they find activities they excel at. Also, it is one powerful way to build a connection with your daughters- when you pay attention to their interests. Give your daughter the freedom to explore anything that sparks her interest, including activities- basketball, music, science projects, arts, anything.

Curb Media To Small Doses: Almost every form of media – social media, television, movies, magazines and even books – portray women in objectifying ways. They’re too sexy, too feminine, too soft, and too many other tags. Exposure to media may create harmful effects such as comparing herself to others, body shaming, and even online bullying. Too much exposure and it will be the only thing she thinks about. Be careful to screen movies and consider what messages or websites you allow your daughter to have access to.