Re-Parenting Yourself: How Childhood Impacts Your Adult Confidence

Our childhood impacts each of us a little differently, but usually affects all of us in adulthood more than we actually realize. Most of our habits, defensive behaviors, and insecurities have their roots in our childhoods — and they can be tricky to spot, because they’ve worked their ways more deeply into our subconscious than other habits. However, when these childhood habits negatively impact our adulthood, there is hope: we can re-parent ourselves into kinder and healthier ways of living.

But first, let’s take a look at why and how these childhood circumstances so deeply affect us.

How Confidence and Self-Esteem Develop

As children grow, they develop a sense of self. They then put this self into context in the world around them, based on how the world responds to their presence in it. This is where the roots of self-confidence lie. They mirror the behavior of their parents and the people in their lives and observe what responses these behaviors elicit. As they grow and begin to be able to accomplish more tasks on their own, their self-confidence grows, boosted by positive feedback and acknowledgement of their accomplishments by outside parties such as their parents.