*This post is sponsored by Mirum*
Having a daughter today is challenging at times with so much media focusing on things that can cause girls to question their beauty and worth.
I want to encourage you to take time to invest in your daughter so she will feel loved and valued by you. Often times it isn’t what we buy them, but the time we spend with them that makes them feel loved.
10 Ways to Build Your Daughter Up
1. Determine your Daughter’s Love Language
You may want to find out what your child’s love language is. My daughter’s love language is quality time. She thrives on spending time with me. She also loves to go shopping with me. I’m glad I’ve learned what she likes to do because often times what she wants to do isn’t always what I want, but I know that my time spent with her doing what she enjoys doing with me is so valuable.
2. Play With Your Daughter
What is your daughter’s favorite sport or activity? Does she love to play soccer, dance, do gymnastics? Does she love playing with her dolls or playing school. Play with her!
3. Go on Mom/Daughter Dates
Go have fun together doing something you love to do together, but ask her some questions about how she feels about herself. Use this time to build her up and address any concerns you see are surfacing when she talks.
4. Find out About Her Friends
Do you know your daughter’s friends well? I ask my daughter a lot about her friends. Who are the 3 friends you enjoy playing with the most at school and why? How do they treat you? How can you be a better friend to them? Also, invite your daughter’s friends over. Maybe you invite the Mother also. This is where you can really get to know people better and create lasting friendships!
5. Teach your Daughter to be a good Decision Maker
I am not decisive. My mother is way more indecisive than me. Why? Her Mom was indecisive. I truly believe this was taught, not intentionally, but very unintentionally. However, it has affected the way I make decisions. I really want my daughter to be decisive because I can see how it has hindered me. So I purposefully ask her questions and allow her to answer and then go with what she says as long as it is something that is okay.
Where do you want to eat? What color shirt do you like? What do you want to do? It is in my nature to want to question everything or ask “are you sure?” and I have to hold back. I’m trying to teach her a character trait I don’t have. It’s hard, but it will be so good for her to have that decisive nature. This will help her with her overall ability to be confident!
6. Be positive about Yourself
Asking your child if your jeans make you look fat isn’t going to help your child’s confidence at all. Constantly looking in the mirror or obsessing over your looks doesn’t teach your daughter self-esteem. Our daughters model what they see at home. We talk about taking good care of our bodies, but we are not aiming to impress people constantly. I also focus on character and her intentions of the heart.
7. Be her Cheerleader
Get your daughter involved in a team sport. This can really boost confidence. My daughter was very frightened at the thought of starting a sport this spring with a lot of girls she didn’t know. She actually ran off the field crying twice during the first two practices. I consoled her for about a minute and sent her back out. It was a little rough. But, we hung in there…and by the third practice she was getting the hang of it. She made new friends. It’s hew new favorite sport. She totally needed that confidence building from myself, my husband, her awesome coach and her friends.
8. Praise Her
Tell your daughter if she looks very pretty. But, don’t forget to praise her actions and her character. I know the praises regarding actions and character go much deeper than the praise about looking beautiful. It’s all about balance.
9. Teach Your Daughter to Help in the Home
Your daughter will be a more confidence young adult if she has been taught life skills from her mother, father or any adult figure. Going into college and marriage I had a pretty good start and was able to do a lot for myself because of my training at home. Sometimes doing laundry, cleaning and cooking doesn’t always sound fun, but let’s face it, it is part of life. There is no better person to teach her daughter than her Mother, Grandmother, Aunt or another woman in her life. Make these tasks fun! You can even do a Womanhood chart or something and once she’s learned all you set out to teach her, have a big party!
10. Keep Communication Open
I truly believe, if your daughter feels like she can talk to you about anything, this is one of the best ways to build her up. If she has something that is troubling her, you can be her biggest voice to encourage her and give her that boost of confidence she needs. If you don’t have that, she will be needing to find it elsewhere, and sometimes that’s when social media and friends that don’t always build up can create self esteem and confidence struggles for our daughters.
How do you encourage your daughter to have self-esteem and confidence?
I love that Dove is encouraging girls all around the world with their #SpeakBeautiful self-esteem movement. Buy Dove at BJ’s Wholesale Club stores and support this cause. Dove wants to build self-esteem in 20 million girls by 2020. I’d love for my daughter to have a graceful confidence and self-esteem as she continues on her life journey.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Mirum. All opinions are 100% mine.
