5 tips for your daughter to grow up more confident

Being a mother, in itself, is already a complicated task. But, as mothers, we need to think about our children’s well-being and, of course, how the education we give will be transmitted to the world. That’s why it’s so important to think about how to make our daughters more confident, so that they can take the fight for women’s rights and gender equality forward.

The website Good Housekeeping spoke with the co-founder of Girls Leadership🇧🇷 Rachel Simmons, on the subject and gave five tips to give girls more confidence. Read below:

1. Praise effort, not talent
It may seem bizarre, but not paying so much attention to the talent that the child has shown can be essential for him to grow up more confident. Saying something like “You worked hard on this and I’m proud of you” instead of “You’re smart” or “You’re really talented” encourages her to be more engaged with the process than the result, according to Rachel. “When girls worry too much about the outcome, they feel insecure. That’s why they keep asking themselves ‘did I do it right?’.

2. Don’t beat yourself up
Children have the habit of imitating their parents’ behavior, so if you make a mistake and blame yourself, beat yourself up about it, it’s very likely that your daughter will do the same. “So if you model a self-compassionate way, they’ll embrace that. But if you show them that making mistakes means you suck, they’ll adopt that too,” explains Rachel. “If you want your daughter to be more forgiving, she needs to see that mistakes are not catastrophes.”

3. Take risks in front of your daughter
For your daughter to get a confidence boost, she needs to understand that it’s okay to step out of her comfort zone a little, and who better to teach her that than you? “It does her no good to see you doing everything perfect. It’s nice that she sees a bit of a mess and also that you respond to it with good humor as part of the process,” says Rachel. This is a way of showing her that everything happens because of persistence and hard work. A good way to show this is by cooking with your daughter, because in this scenario things often go wrong and you can laugh about it together.

4. Be careful not to reinforce gender differences
Unfortunately, the world we live in today is one that places men and women confined to certain roles. One way to not perpetuate this type of behavior is to be very careful when distributing homework, even more so if you have a boy and a girl. “For example, boys must mow the lawn and girls must unload the dishwasher. Do the opposite! Ask the girl to cut the grass and the boy to take care of the dishes”, explains the professional.

5. Don’t emphasize appearance
We are all inclined to say that our daughters are beautiful. However, this type of comment should be very well thought out. This is because, although it is not our intention, girls often understand that they are defined by their appearance: “They do not benefit from feeling that their value is reduced to their appearance, even if that is not the sense. It’s not that we think that defines who they are, but that’s how they listen.”

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