9. Self-Esteem is Supreme
I’ve never understood parents who are genuinely afraid of confronting or being honest with their child for fear of damaging their self-esteem. Number one, who’s the boss here? This should be easy. It’s the one who is bigger. Number two, children are already naturally self-centered. Why should that be encouraged? Life is full of hard knocks. There’s no success without failure. They’re certainly to savoring of success without first experiencing the sting of failure. Why would we as parents seek to remove this valuable training tool?
There’s a vast difference between praising an art project and praising a child who’s just cussed you out because they were ‘expressing’ themselves. It’s shocking that this is even an issue. Children know deep in their hearts when they’ve done something mediocre awful, that they haven’t actually earned the praise. They know it’s all just a con.
Which makes them feel worse about themselves, which, you guessed it, damages their self-worth for realz. Children who are taught respect and humility and soldiering on through challenges will be so adored and sought out, trumped up ego stroking will become superfluous.
