{"id":6853,"date":"2021-02-01T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lpatucson.org\/marana\/?p=6853"},"modified":"2021-02-09T14:21:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T21:21:45","slug":"help-your-child-develop-self-esteem-and-self-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lpatucson.org\/marana\/help-your-child-develop-self-esteem-and-self-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Your Child Develop Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a harsh fact: Not everyone is good at everything. Some people are terrible athletes, some are poor in art or music, and some have difficulty with math or science. Conversely, some people are superb athletes, unbelievably creative artists and musicians, or show brilliance in math and science. That\u2019s just the way life is. Not everyone is good at everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, you wouldn\u2019t always know it. Starting in the late 80s, America\u2019s approach to child-rearing took a radical turn which would affect every aspect of a child\u2019s life. At home, parents began praising everything a child did; in sports, youngsters started getting <\/span>participation trophies<\/span><\/a>, awarded for just showing up; in school, no one received a grade below a B, and everyone made the honor roll.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All that praise and all those trophies probably made kids feel pretty good about themselves. The problem was, all that self-esteem was based on fabricated success. The kids that were never able to hit or catch a baseball thought they were great baseball players because they received trophies that said so. The kids that could barely draw a stick figure considered themselves to be a great artist because they had blue ribbons that said so. The kids that struggled with long division thought they were math geniuses because they received all As and Bs in math.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is self-esteem and self-confidence, based on nothing, a healthy thing? In retrospect, the answer seems to be \u201cNo!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The thinking now is that, since real life doesn\u2019t have the ability to falsely sustain anyone\u2019s feeling of inflated self-worth, the \u201cevery kid gets a trophy\u201d method of parenting and education is just <\/span>setting kids\u00a0 up to fail<\/span><\/a> when they get out into the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychology Today<\/span><\/a> suggests that, rather than give every kid a trophy, hand every kid a list of lessons they should memorize as they begin their journey through life. Here are a couple of the lessons listed:<\/span><\/p>\n