How To Encourage Your Child

How do I encourage my child?

If you take all the good methods know to humankind and you pull just one out and you do it consistently, you will be the most amazingly successful parent. That is, catch your children being good. Catch them being good; that will give them encouragement, raise their self-esteem, teach them right from wrong, and give them the information that they need. If you think about every single thing that you know how to do and you know how to do well, it's only because somebody, maybe a lot of people, caught you being good at it. Maybe they put a gold star on your paper, or an A+, or maybe they smiled at you and gave you a pat on the back and they said "That's right, terrific, you're on it now." This will raise self-esteem. Self-esteem shouldn't be based on "Oh, you're such a pretty person. You're such a good person. You're so smart." Nah, self-esteem is based on achievement. "Look at what you did on this test, you worked so hard and you really succeeded on this." Think about it, that's wonderful. It's based on achievement. Catch them being good. Every time they are moving in the direction you want them to go, "That's right, you got it right. Good for you." That, is wonderful.