Beginning in the early 1980s, child development specialists encouraged parents to build their children’s self-esteem by giving them lavish amounts of praise. The only problem, writes Sharon Jayson in USA Today, is that “life will burst your self-esteem bubble.” Jayson reports that the self-esteem movement created an environment that protected children from failure, consequently keeping them from learning some very basic life skills and lessons essential to their development.
Much of the self-esteem movement has taught kids to be self-centered, not others-centered. You know what really fills a child’s soul with contentment? It’s knowing what their gifts are, having them refined by you and then using them to benefit others. It’s not all about them. Kids wrapped up in themselves make small packages indeed.
- Bryan Davis
