To some extent, the modern parent is their child’s life coach. Today, children need values, time alignment and choice-making coaching and it is often the parent who helps to create these. Let’s take a look at three ways which could help you to be your child’s life coach.
1. Support your child to reach their full potential. Sit down with them and work through their passions and goals. Create steps with them so they can work towards different paths of success.
2. It isn’t often we think about goal-setting for our children. This is something we usually do for ourselves. But why can we not do it with our kids too? We don’t want to put pressure on them to make difficult decisions, but we can encourage them to be curious about what their life might look like in the future.
3. As your children grow it is important you instil personal skills in them so that they stick with them into adulthood. These are resilience, overcoming failure, confidence in going after what they want, problem-solving, being open to new challenges and collaboration and sharing.
As a parent, is life coaching your own child always a good idea though?
We can give them all the love, advice, guidance and encouragement in the world but sometimes it just isn’t enough. Sure, you want your child to be happy and healthy, but many parents do not have the skills and know-how to help children who are struggling. Sometimes parents are just too close to their child to zero in on exactly what the issues are and be able to help them overcome these challenges.
This is where a child coach can help. A life coach can become the parent’s support to help their child achieve their goals and thrive. The coach will support the child too with the common challenges of growing up – low self-esteem, declining self-confidence, dealing with peer pressure and finding direction.
Child coaches also help children who have mild anxiety and depression, giving them the tools and strategies that will assist them in overcoming these feelings and emotions. For example, the coach might help the child develop the skills and knowledge to shape how they see themselves, their abilities, passions and goals.
There might be the rare case where the coach believes the child requires the support of a doctor for a referral to a psychologist or psychiatrist, but in most cases, a parent’s cause for concern is not as severe. The parent simply wants to help their child with struggles or challenges and opts to see a coach rather than a therapist. That’s where life coaches are perfect – where children are clearly struggling and neither they nor their parents have the knowledge or experience to work out how they can move forward in a positive way.