Encouraging your child to join a sport is the one of the best things you can do as parent. Sports offer so much more than just physical fitness - especially for someone with a low self esteem. Here are just a few of the benefits:
- Being a team player means you rely on your team and they on you. Your child is part of something. She will feel accepted and needed by her peers - a necessary part of the whole.
- Confidence will increase. As your child attends practices and learns new skills her confidence will grow and she may be more willing to try other challenging things. After a while she'll automatically have an "I can do it!" attitude.
- If she's involved in sports then she's with peers that are more athletic and confident. Peers that help her feel special because she is different than most of the other kids that are not on a team. Peers that can understand her and be there for her in a way that kids not involved in sports could never be.
- She will feel good about herself and her abilities and skills. She will gain the confidence to stand up for herself and say "no" to the bad influences around her.
Even sports that are more individual will raise her self esteem. Sports such as tennis or the martial arts where it is just her and an opponent will be a huge confidence booster. She is still part of a team with peers she will interact with - peers that will cheer her on in a competition.
There is nothing bad about your child joining a sport or two. What can be bad and damaging to your child's self esteem is parents that demand too much from their child in that sport. Parents that are always yelling instructions or pushing their child to work harder or not supporting their efforts can crush a child.
Remember your child is just that - a child. And a sport is just that - a sport, played for fun.
