Cultivating Teen Self-respect: It Starts with Loving Yourself
Women often struggle with self-love and respect due to the intense pressure that most of us feel to be perfect. On top of being expected to maintain perfect looks, most women feel pressure to be amazing mothers, ideal wives and strong career women. This pressure usually begins during the teenage years, but it doesn’t have to. If you work hard to teach your daughter to respect and love herself, not only will she avoid many difficult teen issues, but she’ll also be more comfortable with herself as an adult.
1. Love Yourself
Teaching self-respect starts with the way you feel about yourself. How can you teach your daughter about the importance of self-love if you are constantly putting yourself down? If you don’t love yourself, it might be wise to seek therapy to help you determine the source of your low self-esteem.
If you do love yourself, it’s good to say so, but don’t make the mistake of coming off vain or conceited. Loving yourself isn’t about thinking you’re better than anyone else. It’s about feeling compassion for yourself as a human being.
2. Love Other Women
One of the biggest issues that women face is competition from other women. Your daughter will likely already be dealing with this at the teen and preteen level. Neither of you will be able to control how the other girls behave at school, but you can teach your daughter to avoid playing into the negativity. Encourage her to say nice things about the other girls and practice kindness whenever she can.
Practice this behavior yourself by avoiding any trash talk about the other women at work. When you catch yourself making a mistake, point out that mistake and remind yourself and your daughter why it’s important to support other women.
