Kids often have faulty thoughts especially about themselves. That’s what’s happening when you tell your daughter, “You look so pretty today” and she responds with “Oh mom, you are just saying that because you’re my mother.” When kids do that, you need to reinforce positivity to her. The way to do that is to say for example, “Oh well, you truly look pretty, whether you want to hear it or not.” Or you can say too, “No, I’m saying that to you because I do love you,” or “I’m saying that to you because I love what you did.”

They say it’s only the positive thoughts that can do away with the negative. This thinking error that your kids commit must be corrected; otherwise, they will be suffering from low self-esteem in the long run, especially in their adult life. One way to change the negativity in your kids is to always divert him into the positive. Being his role model, it is not so difficult for him to emulate your positivity, giving him the upper hand among children who are prone to the sometimes overcritical minds of parents and most of their accompanying adults.

Pretension is also a good means to keep your child protected from the many harsh realities of life. It’s a bad idea to show your kid the real world when it’s too harsh for his innocent and morality-challenged mind to accept or understand. Remember that moral development comes late in the stages of human life cycle. Young kids don’t have a concept of morality yet in them and that’s why it is often called foundation years. Parents simply have to make sure they start with a good, strong moral foundation.

When parents are able to provide a good foundation for morality in their kids, they are sure to linger on the positive things that life can offer and may tend to evade those that will lead them to sin, to despair, or to anything negative. Remember, reinforcing the positive may require a lot of strategies. It varies according to the personality of your child. That and many other factors to consider.

A positive child will grow up to be a well-balanced and well-adjusted individual in the future, the type who can survive any condition he may be thrown in. That’s why you must envelop your kid with positivity and this is only possible with your responsible love and concern for your kid.

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It is the job of every parent to notice and to praise positive behaviors in their kids. Instead of spending too much time noticing your child’s mistakes and failures, you should channel more of your energy into making them feel good about themselves. When you regularly praise your kids, you are teaching them the kind of behaviors that you wan and appreciate.

Make sure that in a day, you give you child praise and encourage four to five times. This should not be difficult because giving praises only takes a few seconds. However, the effects that it will have in your child’s life and to your relationship with your child as a whole is overwhelming.

Even for doing the simples of things, see to it that you praise and thank your child for every nice thing they do. Although they might not need as many praises as they grow old, it does not mean that you should stop giving your child praises and appreciation. Especially when your child reaches adolescence, you need to make them feel that they are actually doing something right.

But then again, you should also be careful in praising your kids. You have to properly state your comments in order to avoid commending your child for not doing something bad. You should avoid saying praise statements like “Great job honey, you did not eat junk food today” or “I am very happy that you did not watch too much TV tonight”.

These statements can actually confuse your child. When you praise your child for not doing something bad, you are ruining the whole point of the praise. Stating a positive comment this way only weakens the positive emphasis on the good behavior, which can imply that your child’s normal behavior is actually worse. Aside from that, by mentioning a bad behavior in the praise, you are giving your child an idea about it.

Show faith and confidence with whatever your child is doing. Make sure that you pay full attention to what they are doing and to notice even their smallest accomplishments. Point out developing skills and encourage them to continue positive behavior. However, you also need to be realistic and avoid demanding for perfection. Remember, kids are not born perfect and they need time to do things right.

Always praise your child every time she makes progress at something, even when she needs to do much more. And even when your child fails at something, give her praise for effort and work. Give your child hope and emphasize on hard work.

But the most important thing that you should remember is to refrain suing negative terms of discouragement. Avoid overgeneralizing and using words like always, anything, never, everyone, etc. Overgeneralizing and using negative terms promote poor self esteem. And the more your child hears about it, the bigger the chance she will ignore you.

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