Today I’m bringing you something a little different. My children are currently only 6 & 8, but it won’t be long before they hit the dreaded Tween stage. With so much of the world around us using social media and technology, it’s hard not to feel the pressure to be popular. Personally, I wouldn’t survive high school today; it was bad enough back then being belittled and feeling awkward. Alas, today it’s a different society we live in. One of the (many) positives to homeschooling is that we can somewhat delay the whole popularity circus and I can help my children to learn self-confidence and self-acceptance, and not to be ruled by what they think others think of them.
Being a blogger, I can still relate to the feelings of insecurity and seeing the ‘big’ bloggers with hundreds of thousands of followers and their posts popping up in my feeds. But instead of being jealous and becoming depressed over it, I am okay with my smaller following because I can get to know my online friends. My children see me doing this and I hope that it sets a good example for them.
I want my children to know who they are and to be able to stand up for themselves as well as others. I want them to find true friends who genuinely care about them; not ones who will lead them down a dark path.
Life isn’t all about how many ‘likes’ you have or how many people you are friends with on Facebook (how many of them REALLY know you and care about you anyways). Life is about being happy, or at least content with who you are now, and working on self-improvement, not social acceptance.
Recently, an interesting book was shared with me, called, “Love Yourself(ie), Life Lessons For Building Kid Charisma” (this and following links may be affiliates) by Andrea A. Lewis. This is a short, three-chapter e-publication aimed at tweens and pre-tweens.
The story line is that Harper is judging herself worth by the number of likes she gets from her classmates on social media. The day before class photos everyone is posting pics of themselves, and hers barely gets a like and her mood plummets.
Fortunately, Harper has a big sister to turn to who shares a little wisdom with her; that the most important thing is not what others think of her, but what she thinks of herself. The final photo Harper posts on social media is not what is expected; and neither is the response to it.
Andrea A. Lewis hopes that this book will be helpful to the pre-teen set and give them something to think about. Dr. Julie Carbray, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Nursing also has some Tips to Prevent Social Media from Deflating Preteen Self-Worth
Be sure to come back next week when I’ll be sharing an interview I did with Dr Julie Carbray who answered some questions I had as a concerned parent. I hope that you will find it useful.
What advice would you/do you give to your children about fitting in and wanting to feel popular?
If you’d like to purchase your own copy of Love Your Self(ie), you can do so by clicking on this link:
