Teaching my Kids Confidence | Affirmations All the way from Boston

As I kid, I remember always wanting to be older than I was. Grow up faster, be an adult, because as a kid being an adult seemed like the best thing to be. And now that I am a 25 year old woman, I can’t help but ask myself why were we all in such a rush to grow up? Why did we think being an adult was so much more fun than being an innocent care free child?

As we grow up we see the world for what it truly is, miraculous but terrifying. We find ourselves asking the same questions over and over, am I good enough? Am I pretty enough? Am I smart enough? Will other people like me?

We realize the world isn’t exactly as we thought it was when we were children, when we were protected from how harsh the world can be. We start to realize the world isn’t designed to build us up, it’s designed to challenge us, break us down until we’re stronger.

As a mother of two, to a 1 year old head strong little girl and a curious 3 year old boy, I do everything I possibly can to make sure the world doesn’t over shadow how they view themselves and others.

Every night before bed we lock eyes with one another and say positive affirmations. I am strong, I am smart, I am brave, I am kind, I am beautiful, I am resilient, I am loved, I am respectful, I am at peace, and most importantly, I am ENOUGH. I started this when my son was only months old, and now he is three and asks daily to do his positive affirmations. He repeats every single positive affirmation back to me and does it with a smile.

In my house we try and practice gentle parenting. I say try and practice because I’m still learning, I’m not perfect and sometimes I lose my temper and I don’t react how I wish I should of. I try and remind myself that communication is key and how I react to certain situations is how they will learn and grow up to react. I teach them their emotions and how to work through them together, by getting on their level and talking, not yelling or screaming or throwing my own tantrum.

Do I yell sometimes and lose my temper? Of course I do, but I try my best to be as calm and understanding as possible whenever I can. On days where i didn’t parent how I would of liked to and I think I’m not doing a great job at this whole mom thing, I look at my children, and hear my son say to himself and his little sister all of the affirmations I taught him, and I feel a weight lifted off my chest, because I know that if there’s one thing I’m doing right, it’s raising decent and kind children who will ALWAYS know what they’re worth and what they bring to the table.

Whatever emotions he’s feeling he will always say, “Mommy I’m so frustrated or sad whatever it is, let’s talk about it”. Whenever he feels he over reacted or made a mistake, he will always come up to me, give me a hug and say I’m sorry for ... mommy. I make it a point to always apologize when I am wrong, and explain to him why he got spoken to or In trouble so he will always understand what he did wrong. And that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them. No matter how they’re behaving before bed or first thing in the morning, I will never lose my temper (or at least try my best not to) because how can we expect our children to sleep well, or have a great day if the first or last thing they hear isn’t positive?

I make it a point to instill self worth, love, confidence and respect because as an adult, you know better than to think the world will do that for you. I want my children to be more confident than me, and love themselves despite the mistakes they’ve made and what society tells them. I want them to think so highly of themselves they teach others to do the same. In a time where their is so much pressure to be a certain way, conform to the norm, we have to remember what really matters, who we are as individuals. Love yourself, and always remember, be kind to yourself, we’re all growing and learning, making mistakes and learning from them. We are all enough.

MacKenzie Campbell