Your Child's Self-Esteem: Step-By-Step Guidelines for Raising Responsible, Productive, Happy Children

by Dorothy Corkille Briggs

Book Overview

Step-by step guidelines for raising responsible, productive, happy children. Self-image is your child's most important characteristic. How to help create strong feelings of self-worth is the central challenge for every parent and teacher. The formula for how is spelled out in Your Child's Self-Esteem. A member of Phi Beta Kappa and other honoraries, Dorothy Corkille Briggs has worked as a teacher of both children and adults; dean of girls; school...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385040202
• ISBN13: 9780385040204
• Release Date: December 1975
• Publisher: Harmony/Rodale
• Length: 341 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book for parents and adults

Great book for parents and for adults Just trying to figure out what happened in their childhood and heal from any trauma or mistreatment they endured. I love how she says Model behavior is not healthy positive behavior and talks about how being good on the outside doesn’t mean the child is healthy. He may just be repressing undesirable emotions. The checklist at the end was perfect for referring back to any parts you need a refresher on. I will use it for years to come! I would definitely recommend this book! I am really glad I read it!!! Quotes I loved: Each pressure you remove gives you time for the person of your child. Each of us needs to ask, does my behavior give priority to things and schedules or to human beings? Empathy is listening with your heart and not with your head. Empathy is more difficult when you believe you should direct and guide children, when you feel you always know best. Before you can accept feelings, you must first be able to hear them. Active listening is hearing the other person’s point of view. It does not involve agreement or disagreement with that view point. Understanding never makes feelings worse; it only gives them permission to be revealed. The more you help him generate his own ideas, the more you foster independence and self-respect. Swamping youngsters with wisdom only makes them resist looking at the open doors you may suggest. If the time spent in empathetic listening seems excessive, consider the hours you spend dealing with negative behavior. Other books I loved: Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves by Naomi Aldort Parenting from the Inside Out by Mary Hartzell and Daniel J. Siegel

The missing manual on how to raise children or yourself

I found this book when in college, applied it to myself first, and then to all my relationships with children. What can be better than seeing a child blossom, and seeing love in their eyes when they are going to spend time in your presence? No, we can never be perfect, but this book gives the perspective and big picture, so that you can ride out the difficult times, knowing your consistent nurturing of healthy self esteem will come back to reward everyone involved. This is always one of my new parent or struggling parent gifts.

Proof is in the pudding!

When my daughter Julia was 7 years old, I was told by teachers, principal, counselors and social workers that I could never expect her to read above 3rd grade level, and must be prepared to support her all her life. They also noted, as an aside, that she was remarkably well adjusted for someone with her multiple and complex learning disabilities.Julia is 24 now, a university senior majoring in environmental science, with a 3.75 GPA.The strong sense of self, of her innate value, which counselors noted even when her future as an independent adult looked completely out of the question, I credit to the fact that I read this book while Julia was still tumbling around in amniotic fluid.My primary goal with my daughter was to be sure she had a strong senese of her self and her innate value as a human being -- a goal solely and entirely inspired by this book! Because her self esteem was strong, she attacked the challenges of her life with confidence and implacable determination, and won.My daughter has become a cheerful, unique, self-referring and self reliant adult, and I credit her success to two things: the ideas I got from this book, and my daughter's on powerful will and determination, fueled by the confidence Your Child's Self Esteem gave this parent!While Ms. Briggs, writing back in the 70's, might not have been terribly politically correct in her discussion of homosexuality (page 144, mentioned in other reviews -- I've actually forgotten what was said), I think we're all adult enough to take what she says, remember when she said it, and filter those ideas through our own value systems to make correct choices. That's a lot of what her book is about, after all!

One of the best parenting (and inter-relating) books ever

The whole idea of self-esteem has been misrepresented and mocked in recent years. People who don't really underatand the concept think it means falsely praising children and giving them an unrealistically inflated sense of their abilities or an annoying conceit. What it really means is letting the child know he or she is lovable and worthwhile, which every human being certainly is to begin with. Most all parents feel this about their children in some ways--they love them--but we can communicate otherwise and end up making the child feel inadequate, unloved, that only performance brings approval. The book is beautifully and compellingly written and can really help you see the way if you're feeling uncertain of your parenting or down about how your children are behaving. I always felt better and inspired after reading it and thought of it as a gift to myself and my family--it helped me remember what is really important and also gave me definite ideas about how to parent more effectively, with pertinent information about what kids need at different ages. Along with How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk, I think it's the best there is!

A Must for learning about your child's needs

I received this book as a gift 13 years ago. It became the main resource book I used while raising my kids. I now give it out to others as gifts. It helped me to get through the "temper tantrums". It teaches ways to help work through difficult times by understanding your childs need for expression and gives you examples and tools to help strengthen your childs self esteem. Good Self esteem is so important in children and it begins to develope from birth. This book is easy to ready and re-read as you go through each phase of your childs developement.