Teaching Your Child to be Self-Reliant
Parents should strive to help their children become self-reliant. Self-reliance refers to the confidence a person has within his inner resources to handle any situation.
Parents must instill self-reliance in their children. Self-reliance can boost self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth. Children who are self-reliant will not need to rely on others for small things. This can help children face difficult situations with ease. This is how to teach your child self-reliance.
Self-reliance vs. self-confidence
Parents should encourage self-reliance in their children. Self-reliant children are more independent, creative, capable, and spontaneous. You might think that a confident child would display the same characteristics. There is a fine line between self-reliance and self-confidence. Self-reliance can be a more broad concept than self-confidence. Self-confidence refers to specific abilities and talents, but self-reliance is about the confidence that one has in his inner resources to handle any situation.
What's self-reliance?
Self-reliant people are self-sufficient. They can think and function independently and don’t fear taking risks. They solve problems instead of worrying about them. This person trusts his own judgment and rarely needs to be guided or advised by others. Self-reliant people are more in control of their lives and can deal with any life challenges that may come his way.
Letting go
If you hover over your child like a mother hen, your child won’t learn self-reliance. It is going to be difficult to let go. It will be like walking on a tightrope. Your child might feel insecure if you let go too quickly. If you wait too long to let go, your child may become dependent on you.
How can children learn self-reliance?
These are some tips to help your child develop self-reliance.
- Don’t Do Everything for them
You can help your children develop self-reliance by not doing everything. Allow them to do the age-appropriate tasks on their own. - Assign Tasks To Them
Give them chores and daily tasks that are appropriate for their age. They will feel more responsible. - Encourage Extracurricular Activities
Encourage them to get involved in extracurricular activities. Participating in these activities will increase their confidence and enable them to take on new activities. - Explore
Give your children enough opportunities to discover new things and think for themselves. - Encourage Decision Making
Boost decision making skills in your children. Let them make the right decisions and decide what is best. This will increase their ability to think and make decisions. - Enhance Problem Solving Skills
Encourage children to solve problems on their own if they are faced with a problem. If they can’t find the solution, or are choosing the wrong path to solving the problem, you must help them. - Learn from Their Mistakes
If your children make mistakes, don’t shout or yell at them. Talk to your children calmly to help them see the error. They should learn from their mistakes and not make them again. - Help them distinguish between right and wrong
Your children should learn to discern between right and wrong, moral, good, and evil, ethical, unethical, moral and immoral, etc. This will help them choose the right path in their lives.
Parents must be role models to instill self-reliance in their children. To help your children become self-reliant, you must model what you teach them. At CGR International School, we closely work with parents and children to support the children in their journey towards self-reliance.
