You cannot simply ignore shyness in children, especially when you are dealing with your own kids. You have to help them while they are still trying to evolve and become better in a world that may be tough to deal with after they have grown carrying such attitude. As a parent, it is your duty to guide them and make them realize what will be best for them. You don’t have to impose on your children to do what you want them to. You just have to make them understand that they can gather many benefits from being confident in carrying themselves and relating with other people.
One Step at a Time
To help your children overcome this kind of attitude that may hinder their emotional and social skills as they grow old, here are some of the things that you can do.
1. You must not impose on what you want them to be. And even if you are already doing certain things to make things happen in this regard, you cannot expect instant results. You must understand what your children are going through. The attitude may be innate to them and it is also hard for them to follow your lead as much as they want to. You must try and take small steps to initiate changes to your children. Give them time to absorb things and values of what you want them to learn. Let them approach the situation at their own pace and do things at the right time whenever they are ready.
2. You must protect them from getting teased because of their behavior. This will aggravate the situation and may lower their self-esteem even more. If they are often getting teased, they will try to avoid people and situations so that they won’t get such treatment. If this is going to happen, you will have a harder time teaching them on how to improve their social skills.
3. Do not punish them for being shy. They did not intend to be this way. You must approach the matter in a calm manner all the time. You must bear in mind that they are also having a hard time dealing with their situation and thinking of ways of how they can eventually get out of their shell.
4. You must support them, but not too much to the point that you are taking matters onto your own hands. Let them speak for themselves whenever they want to at the phase that they like. Do not speak to other people on their behalf because this may only aggravate the situation. You must do your best to encourage them to slowly get out of their shells. You have to be able to achieve this without being very obvious about your intentions.
If you are faced to deal with a problem like shyness in children, you must always put their feelings first before you start acting and implementing what you think will be best for them. If you are having a hard time dealing with it, just think that this is harder for them. If you really want to help them, you must allow them to adjust to the whole scenario at their own pace.