The power of positive parenting is amazing and parents who grew up with
little praise understand that children respond better to positive encouragement
than they do to reprisals or the promise of punishment. But sometimes,
praising your kids becomes such a habit that we tend to overdo it.
“Somehow, parents have come to believe that by praising their kids
they improve their self-esteem,” Paul Donahue, PhD, founder and
director of Child Development Associates, says. “Though well-intentioned,
putting kids on a pedestal at an early age can actually hinder their growth.”
It’s ok to lose
Sometimes you need to praise the process rather than the outcome. If your
child’s baseball team lost, but they went to every practice and
tried their little hearts out, then you should praise their resilience,
their tenacity and their effort. But take care not to pretend that they
didn’t lose. Losing is part of life and they have to learn to deal
with the disappointments.
Teach self-motivation
When you over-praise, your kids lose the value of a positive word from
mom or dad and the good feeling that comes with achieving something noteworthy.
This will mean that you will have to find other ways to motivate your
child. Some parents here turn to cash or material incentives but, warns
Jenn Berman, PhD, a
marriage and family therapist and author of
The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy and Confident Kids this will lead to kids who can’t self-motivate: “I believe
that we want children who are self-motivated. If you tell your daughter,
‘If you get an A on the test I’ll give you $5,’ then
you are creating a situation in which your child is motivated by money,
not by the positive feelings of success.”
Steps to proper praise
Each child and situation is unique and as their parents, you know best
how and when to praise, but the experts do agree on a few pointers:
Be genuine: Focus on praising when you are sincerely impressed. If words
like ‘good job’ and ‘that was great’ pepper your
every sentence, it may be time to cut back.
Be specific: Pick out the exact things that you thought they tried really
hard at and praise those for example, instead of saying “You are
great at science” try “I was really impressed by the work
you put into your science project. I know the other kids didn’t
do their share so you had to work a little harder and you did a great
job of managing your team.”
Say it like you mean it: To praise your children’s every action,
even when you aren’t impressed, is to reduce the value of their
efforts, so choose wisely.
Praise younger children more: In a study of 24-month old children (Kelley
et al 2000), researchers recorded how mothers responded to their toddlers
while they attempted a challenging task. A year later the same families
were invited back and kids were tested again. Researchers found that the
36-month old kids who were most likely to take on new challenges were
the ones whose mothers had praised them more.
