Confidence – Labels – Part 3

What’s in a label?

In previous blogs, we have discussed helping our children:

• Build their confidence by doing things they are afraid of
• Learn they are not failures if they don’t accomplish a task the first time
• Grow into a positive characteristic that you expect them to have 

We now want to touch on the labels we place on our children. Children will grow up believing the labels that you or other adults put on them. Many labels can be viewed in either a negative or positive way. It always seems easier to look at the negative, but since we want to build our children’s confidence, we need to see how labels can be used in a positive way. 

• A child who is extremely stubborn also can be viewed as persistent. In business, persistence is a great thing.
• Someone who is shy actually might be observing everyone.  If you encourage that child to talk, you could be impressed by her great insights.
• An unpredictable child is flexible. He will be able to adjust easily to circumstances that don’t go his way. When obstacles come across his path, he will find a way around them.
• The daydreamer is exhibiting creativity. It is the people who think out of the box that make the greatest differences in our world. Where would we be without Thomas Edison or the Wright Brother?

These are just a few of the labels we can place on our children. Just as there are two sides to a coin, there are two sides to a label. We shouldn’t let other adults use negative labels on our children. It might be uncomfortable, but we need to tell that adult how great our child is be because of the positive side of that label. Our child might not say a word to us, but we will have just given her the greatest gift: the knowledge that we believe in her and that she will succeed.