Developing A Child's Self Esteem - Part 3

This Series Came From Dr. Dallas Lummis of Chiro One Wellness Center
As Written By Jim Rohn

While This Series was Presented over two days, it will be broken down into mutiple blog sections for ease of reading!

Thanks For Your Interest In Helping Our Kids!

Ron Bishoff

Developing a Child's Self-Esteem

Blog Part Three

Leg #3: A Sense of Worthiness

This third leg of self-esteem is a sense of worthiness, the feeling that I'm glad I'm me, with my genes and background, my body, my unique thoughts.  Without our own approval, we have little to offer.  If we don't feel worth loving, it's hard to believe that others love us; instead, we tend to see others as appraisers or judges of our value.

Show your children unconditional love.  Carefully separate the doer from the deed, and the performer from the performance.  The message: "I love you no matter what happens, and I'm always there for you" is one of the most important concepts in building a feeling of worthiness or intrinsic value in children.  After every reprimand, let them know you love them.  Before they go to sleep at night, give them the reassurance that, regardless of what happened that day, you love them unconditionally.

A healthy sense of belonging, identity and worthiness can only be rooted in intrinsic core values as opposed to outer, often material, motivation.  Without them, we depend on others constantly to fill our leaking reserves of self-esteem - but also we tend to suspect others of ulterior motives.  Unable to accept or reject others' opinions for what they're worth, we are defensive about criticism and paranoid about praise - and no amount of praise can replace the missing qualities.  A healthy senes of belonging, identity and worthiness is also essential to belief in your dreams.  It is most essential during difficult times, when you have only a dream to hang on to.