Blog posts for ‘Self-esteem’ 
-
Embracing failure
Monday 6 February 2012
Categories: Education, Growing up, Self-esteem, Teenagers
I remember once standing up to speak at an A level Awards presentation at the school where I was the head, and beginning, ‘Today I want to talk to you about failure…’ I still recall the uncomfortable ripple that went through the assembled audience of Year 13 leavers, their parents, the staff and guests. It was a word we just didn’t use in school. We talked about success all the time, and, if we ever needed to talk about its opposite, we referred to ‘areas for development’ or...
-
Body image - it's all about perception
Friday 27 January 2012
Categories: Health, Media Influence, Self-esteem
Young people have always been concerned about their appearance, but this generation is under greater pressure to look good than ever before. On average British children are spending between six and eight hours a day looking at screens, during much of which they are being bombarded with images of the “beautiful”. Men’s and women’s magazines present distorted images of human perfection. At present the average model weighs 23% less than the average British woman, so it is no surprise that at...
-
How can we help girls to be more confident?
Tuesday 3 January 2012
Categories: Education, Parenting, Self-esteem, Teenagers
Our bright, talented, good looking, hardworking girls should be proud of themselves but all too often they lack confidence. Why is this? As parents we may praise, reassure and encourage our daughters but somehow this can fail to penetrate their fragile egos. Once adolescent hormones kick in many girls become self-conscious about their looks, their bodies and their talents. They compare themselves, unfavourably of course, with their peers, with the images they see in the media and their...
-
Anti-bullying week 2011
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Categories: Growing up, Personal Safety, Self-esteem
So many children’s lives are blighted by bullying. It is important that families and schools face up and admit to this issue and take firm action. MyDaughter.co.uk supports anti-bullying week and we hope that in the future there will be less stigma so that the victims of bullying can come forward and receive the help, support and understanding they deserve.
Worried about bullying?
- If your instincts tell you that your child is being bullied, trust them.
- Tread softly. Don’t rush...
-
Does my bum look big in this?
Friday 15 July 2011
Categories: Family Relationships, Health, Role Models, Self-esteem
If you have ever wondered whether your daughter listens to you take a moment to read Arabella Weir’s piece in last Saturday’s Telegraph.
Despite being a highly successful comic actress with a luscious figure and an astute take on life, Arabella grew up knowing that her glamorous mother was disappointed by her “chunky” if longed- for daughter. Her mother’s favourite put-down was “watching you eat is like having knives stuck into my eyes”. This led to years of low esteem...
-
From WAGs to witches
Thursday 2 December 2010
Categories: Media Influence, Role Models, Self-esteem
It’s very heartening that 87% of teenage girls in a survey by ASDA would rather be like Hermione in Harry Potter than Cheryl Cole. Hermione, at least in the early books and films, has bad hair and buck teeth. And she is most definitively her own woman. She works incredibly hard at her witchy studies, usually beating the boys; she challenges them, standing up to them fearlessly, unconcerned as to whether they will like her less. Her morals are impeccable; she is clever and tenacious, loyal...
-
Good enough IS good enough
Thursday 2 September 2010
Categories: Growing up, Media Influence, Parenting, Self-esteem
How can we teach our daughters that “good enough” really is “good enough”? Too many girls have low self-worth. They put enormous pressure on themselves: to achieve in every academic area; to be slim and pretty; to be clever and popular and yet, as we know, perfection is not only unachievable but is a dangerous aim.
It’s like the fabled pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and chasing that leads to madness and mayhem.
Hopefully girls are beginning to learn that air-brushing...
-
Pester Power...
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Categories: Media Influence, Parenting, Self-esteem
Pity poor parents. In this “must have” culture they are besieged and beleaguered, pestered and plagued by their children demanding on trend clothes and the latest gadgets. If they dare to resist they are made to feel an inadequate parent, a failed provider and yet…
Children who are supplied with state of the art media toys spend far less time interacting with their families. Such children (and adults!) can become isolated in their well equipped rooms, immured from reality, unable to amuse...
-
From drug dealer to head boy (with help from a very inspiring headmistress)
Friday 14 May 2010
Categories: Drugs and Alcohol, Education, Self-esteem
Some things never change including adults’ views of the young. Even Socrates is quoted as saying: “children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” **
It’s so easy to criticise “the youth of today”; every generation are appalled by how their lack of manners, by how standards of behaviour have declined, by how little respect they show towards their elders who are obviously their betters....
-
Categories
- Careers (13)
- Drugs and Alcohol (3)
- Education (62)
- Extra curricular (11)
- Family Relationships (21)
- Growing up (20)
- Health (13)
- Higher Education (6)
- Homework (6)
- Letting go (5)
- Literacy (1)
- Media Influence (33)
- Parenting (33)
- Personal Safety (10)
- Role Models (25)
- Self-esteem (9)
- Sexual Relationships (5)
- Technology & the Internet (7)
- Teenagers (17)