A child who encounters various positive experiences throughout their life, no matter how big or small, is far more likely to have an optimistic attitude. Optimism can go on to help inspire your child to explore new things, take risks and believe in their abilities, because they’ll anticipate a positive outcome.
If you’re unsure of how to raise an optimistic child or would like to find out more about why it can be so beneficial, a private prep school in London have put together the following advice.
Start by setting aside some one-to-one time with your child each day so that you can catch-up and show that you are interested in their life. Try and ask them open ended questions about their day, their school work and their friends. If they bring up any problems they’re experiencing, be sure to take them seriously; try and be supportive and teach some coping mechanisms.
Allow your child to experience a sense of accomplishment on a regular basis by setting them achievable tasks to do, even something simple like setting the table before dinner. Let them do things without your help sometimes so they start to learn how to be independent and confident in their abilities. What’s more, you should always applaud them for their efforts rather than the end result. If things go wrong for them, like they don’t get the grade they wanted, remind them that life is full of ups and downs and they can always try again.
Make sure your child experiences joy and excitement as much as possible, but don’t feel like you have to spend a fortune on a trip to Disney Land to accomplish this. Playing a board game or going for a game of tennis the park can make your child happy. Most children value time and experiences over material items and the memories will often be of those times you took to kick a ball round with them rather than the toy you brought
As with all facets of life, you should aim to model the behaviour you’d like to see from your child. Refrain from complaining about things around them and trying your best to shield them against stress or feeling your anxiety. Of course its ok (and even good) for your children to see you displaying a range of emotions as these are normal and its good for children to realise this. However seeing you anxious or stressed at a time when they ma be feeling the same could amplify their feelings at the time rather than help. The idea is to express a positive mental attitude in front of your child and use optimistic vocabulary.
Help your child come to terms with perspective. Teach them that there will be bumps in the road from time to time and there’s nothing we can do about it and that it a perfectly normal thing to happen. Hardly anyone will have a smooth ride to where they want to be and its often the journey and how we get there that makes the end goal and achievement even more special. Show them that if they weigh up the circumstances they will begin to realise that whatever’s happening could always be worse and to try and remain optimistic rather than giving up.
Is optimism something you think is important for a child to have and learn?
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