Parenting Tips ~ How to Help Your Child Become a Positive Thinker

Do you need parenting tips on helping your child challenge his negative thoughts? Inside you'll 3 negative statements and how to challenge them.

Does your child say things like?

1. "I never win."
2. "Nobody cares."
3. "I feel terrible when the kids tease me."

Let's take number one, "I never win." Respond to your child by asking, "Never?" Remind him of the many times he's already won. Let him know when he says "never" it's almost always untrue. There aren't many things we can say "never" about and be telling the truth. After that ask, "Never?" whenever you hear him using that word.

Now for number two, "Nobody cares about me." Again, respond to your child by asking, "Nobody?" Remind him of the people do love and care about him. You're one of them. Tell him words like nobody, never, and always are exaggerations. When we use them in sentences, they exaggerate our statements. To help him stop using those words, tell him you'll answer him with a question mark whenever he uses those words.

Finally, let's look at number three, "I feel terrible when the kids tease me." In the counseling world, we call this "catastrophizing," which means treating events like catastrophes or mole hills like mountains. In other words, we think the worst. Help your child see when he mentally exaggerates, it discourages and hurts him even more because he feels like giving up. Words like "awful" terrible, and never" turn events into catastrophes.

Have a contest in which you both drop these negative words. The winner gets to choose a fun activity to do together.

One last thing, how do you help your child become a positive thinker? Let me know at:

Jean Tracy's Email or click the comment link below and leave your comment.

Become an exceptional parent. Subscribe to my Free Parenting Newsletter and receive 80 free fun activities to share with your kids at:

http://www.KidsDiscuss.com

 With warm wishes for your parenting success,

Jean

Jean Tracy, MSS