Building a solid relationship with your daughter is fulfilling and rewarding. We all wish to help our children grow and be there for them with the advice that we wish we were given. A strong parent-child relationship can be crucial in teaching your girl to be kind and strong. You have to teach her to never give in to the pressure put on her by society’s expectations on her looks and behavior.
6 Ways To Help Your Tween Develop Self-Love & Inner Beauty
It becomes essential to teach her the importance of self-worth and inner beauty in a world that often forgets it. Many people believe that feminism is no longer needed, but the opposite is true. In our society, little girls are told to be like someone and judged for the choices they make. They are told to shrink, and you do not want her to live a life where she does not realize her strength.
Your responsibility is to create a clear difference between inner beauty and outer beauty to build a strong body image. There are many ways you can help your tween develop inner beauty and self-love.
Define inner beauty
The first thing you should do is talk to your daughter about inner beauty and outer beauty. It is something everyone talks about, including how we look and dress. Teach your daughter that it is not the outer beauty that makes her gorgeous, and there is no need to impress anyone else by looking beautiful. But the inner beauty is what matters. It is something everyone must work on. This includes trust, kindness, understanding, and behavior. It will define who she is and will build her core values. Tell her that it has nothing to do with her hair or skin color.
Compliment her on her true self
A lot of us make this mistake unconsciously. We tend to complement our girl on the way she looks, and it can substantially impact her. Instead, you must compliment her for her qualities like kindness and her efforts to help you and her friends. You can tell her she is gorgeous because she has a kind heart and loves and not for the pretty face.
Sit and talk with her
An ideal way to remove the beliefs from a child’s mind is to patiently sit with them and listen to the things that they have in their mind. You should ask her about beauty and what she considers beautiful and ask her why. It is easy to get into her mind if you see a pattern in her answers.
Does she talk about beauty in a worldly way, and is her definition of beauty different from others? Try to engage in the conversation and guide her to understand the meaning of beautiful.
Build a positive body image
It would help if you let your tween know that she is pretty in every way. She does not have to compare herself to anyone at the school to feel better. It will increase her self-confidence as she will understand the meaning of beauty and accept herself the way she is.
You can have a regular session where you sit and chat about the women who have changed the world with their actions, thoughts, and intelligence. Alternatively, you can go shopping with her and shop for identical outfits for the both of you while explaining the importance of picking outfits that are more comfortable than fashionable.
Be an example
Tweens learn a lot from their mothers as they are keen observers. They mark every move you make, and you also must have done the same as a child. Hence, it would help if you created an example for her by being one. Never talk about outer beauty to your child and practice self-love. Always be kind to yourself so that she also learns this from you. Never criticize yourself in front of her, or she will learn to do the same.
Monitor her group
Do not spy on your girl’s social life but keep a watch on her social group and how they talk. Some girls can be mean sometimes, and it is essential to know what they are talking about. Teach her to complement other girls not only for the looks and dresses but for the inner beauty. Make sure she is a part of the group that makes her feel confident and builds self-worth.
Helping Your Tween Develop Self-Love & Inner Beauty
With these six simple ways, you can teach your tween to develop inner beauty and self-love. Be patient and understand their thoughts before teaching them anything about body image and beauty.