Raising Confident Kids

Confident children believe in themselves and their ability to face and take on new challenges. That’s why it’s only natural that parents want to instill confidence in their kids. Having confidence makes kids feel good about themselves and better enables them to try new things, cope with their mistakes and try again.

Since there is no parenting manual, parents are often left wondering how to build confidence in their kids. Boys Town offers these recommendations to help with confidence development and maintenance:

• Have realistic and developmentally appropriate expectations and trust the process.

• Be mindful of language and start with challenging thoughts.

• Pay attention to expressed language.

• Lead with values and what matters.

• Stop talking and start doing.

A healthy self-concept is built through life experience and supported by trust, personal values, developmentally appropriate expectations and intentional use of language. Boys Town Behavioral Health offers a variety of resources to help parents navigate the challenges of building a solid self-concept in kids including these Values Assessments:

• www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheets/values/none
• motivationalinterviewing.org/value-card-sort-online-game