Experts say teaching children how to stand up for themselves, especially in times of conflict, can help them gain confidence and increase their chances of success.
Just ask Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. On last week’s episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Harris reflected on the conflict and how she was able to contribute to the problem and how she was able to solve the problem. He said that he was taught to think about things.
“Every time I came home with a problem, the first thing my mom would do was ask me, ‘What did you do?'” Harris told podcast host Alex Cooper. “I realized that she was actually teaching me to think about the agency I had in that moment and the choice of what I would do or not do.”
She added that the lessons have allowed Harris to become an independent problem solver and, in most cases, find a way to take control of the moment.
Parenting experts agree: “Showing your child that you trust them to work through their own problems makes them more confident in their own abilities.” But as long as you can find a balance between holding your child accountable without being too harsh.
“When you trust children to make their own decisions, they become more engaged, confident, and begin to feel empowered. And once that happens, there are no limits to what they can achieve. No,” author and parenting expert Esther Wojcicki wrote in Make It magazine in 2022.
Research shows that self-confidence is also an important factor in children’s future success. It affirms that their abilities lead to positive outcomes in athletics, in the classroom, and in building healthy relationships.
Another way to build ownership and confidence is to encourage children to stand up for what they believe in. Harris carried what she learned from her mother into her career as a prosecutor. She said on the podcast that she used her voice to help people who don’t have much control over their lives.
“It was really about wanting to protect the most vulnerable and the people who don’t have the power…because they were the subject of a power imbalance,” Harris said. “A lot of the work I’ve done has been about wanting to restore their right to justice to the extent that I can play a role.”
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