5 yr old girl has self esteem issues, need advice please!
I'm not sure I have any good advice, but to just remind her how beautiful and wonderful she is. my son went thru a stage at that age if he got in trouble and would cry and say how stupid he was.
There could be alot more involved that you arent seeing... I wish I had seen this in my daughter at 5yrs. Instead I chalked it up to being a "kid" Then at 7 it all came to a head. I finally noticed that she had some terrible depression and I took her to talk to someone. She is much happier nowadays and doesnt have such negative self talk.. Just something to think about....
Could this behavior be caused by the way she is being corrected at school? Are they saying negative comments like Only bad girls/boys do that or Nobody likes boys/girls who do ... A lot of adults do that and it affects some kids more than others. Or she could be doing it to manipulate so she gets positive attention and reinforcement even when she has done something bad. It is hard to tell from here but if your insurance covers it take he to talk to someone, a child psychologist could help both of you
Keep reinforcing that she is a good girl and that she is pretty. If she doesn't grow out of it, it might not hurt to talk to a child psychologist.
I would ask her why she feels that way about herself. She needs to understand in your home you will have rules but that never means you don't love her. Maybe try and give her some chores or little things that may help to build up her self esteem. A little chart for her with stickers, with such responsibility as helping mommy or picking up toys. So many stickers of good helping and the two of you plan a day doing something she likes together. Open communication is always a good thing. Hopefully by seeing the stickers, and knowing she can do things well by herself will help build her esteem. Let her know everyone makes mistakes and its okay.
Did you read the book "The Help", every morning when the Nanny came to take care of the girl, she said to her You are Kind, You are Beautiful, You are Important. I loved that part of the book so much, I implemented it immediately with my girls.
My kids never walk out of the door without me saying to them, my youngest says You forgot Awesome!!! Which I love. My teenager will kind of hunch over sometimes, when she does that I grab her and say repeat after me. You Are Kind, You Are Beautiful, You Are Important. Kind is easy for her, because she believes it. Beautiful I can eek out of her, Important is the hardest. It just breaks my heart. She is all of those things and more, just like I know your Baby is.
Good Luck Momma. If you have facebook look up Proud and Pretty in Pink, they will send out updates that encourage and inspire girls, it will give you some ideas and advice on raising self esteem.
Nasty peer pressure and the extreme competition that administrators set up at school are likely at the root of this. I would get her some counseling and say sincere, nice things to her.
Frankly I'd yank her out of school too but that's me.
Quoting appraisergirl:Did you read the book "The Help", every morning when the Nanny came to take care of the girl, she said to her You are Kind, You are Beautiful, You are Important. I loved that part of the book so much, I implemented it immediately with my girls.
My kids never walk out of the door without me saying to them, my youngest says You forgot Awesome!!! Which I love. My teenager will kind of hunch over sometimes, when she does that I grab her and say repeat after me. You Are Kind, You Are Beautiful, You Are Important. Kind is easy for her, because she believes it. Beautiful I can eek out of her, Important is the hardest. It just breaks my heart. She is all of those things and more, just like I know your Baby is.
Good Luck Momma. If you have facebook look up Proud and Pretty in Pink, they will send out updates that encourage and inspire girls, it will give you some ideas and advice on raising self esteem.
what's the best way to...
- SLSparks07
on Feb. 15, 2012 at 12:52 PM