Praise has long been extolled for its virtues as a positive parenting tool. When used correctly, praise is a great way to let kids know which behaviours are appropriate, help them rebound from setbacks, and build their self-esteem. Unfortunately, praise also has a dark side: Excessive, nonspecific admiration from parents has the potential to encourage narcissistic traits – while actually harming ...
One of the greatest challenges parents face is figuring out how to encourage the development of healthy self-esteem without engendering egotism. With research indicating that narcissistic traits are becoming more prevalent among young people, many parents are concerned that their attempts to make their children feel valued could have unintended consequences. Fortunately, understanding what separates confidence from arrogance will give ...
‘Risk’ is a word that few parents enjoy contemplating. After all, whether it’s realistic or not, we instinctively want to protect our kids from all forms of potential harm. However, while this type of parental care is nothing new, experts today worry that parents are becoming overly risk-averse. Changing social dynamics have left both, parents and their kids feeling ...
For years, low self-esteem was used as something of a catch-all scapegoat. If a child was bullying others, failing at school, or getting into trouble, his (or her) self-esteem was the first place parents and teachers looked when trying to solve the issue. Recently, however, research has corrected some of our prior assumptions about self-esteem: In actuality, low self-esteem is ...
Having a sense of fairness is a great virtue and a sign that your child has a strong moral compass. ...
With climate change becoming an increasingly common theme in politics, news, and even entertainment, it’s no wonder more young ...
For parents, even the little white lies that children sometimes tell - e.g., claiming to have completed their homework ...
When we hear the phrase “learning disability,” the first thing that usually springs to mind is the image of a child who struggles to read or stay focused at school. We immediately think of the academic issues these kids face and overlook what is, for them, often the most upsetting aspect of being “different”: Not fitting in. The vast majority ...
Young women have always struggled with societal pressures where body image is concerned. For girls coming of age in the era of social media, however, this pressure has become substantially more intense and pervasive. Not only are girls today expected to grow up to be powerful, confident career women, they feel they have to compete with the heavily edited physiques ...
Failure is a normal part of life, but for a young child encountering it for the first time it can feel absolutely crushing. Most parents are already familiar with just how intensely kids experience defeat: they’ve seen their child refuse to ever ride a bike again after falling off a few times, for example, or heard her call herself “...
Though it may seem contradictory, the sudden increase in social awareness that middle schoolers experience makes them more prone to bullying. Children in this age group are so hyper-sensitive to social dynamics that they frequently become highly reactive, competitive, and critical. This isn’t a personality flaw; instead, it’s a sign that the brain’s limbic system is operating ...
