Build Your Child's Self Esteem - Accepting compliments

A lot of people with low self-esteem have problems graciously accepting compliments. You can help your child develop this skill with a game that is a variation on "Spin the Bottle".

Here's how it works - you sit in a circle and spin a bottle. When the bottle stops, the spinner's job is to say something nice about the person the bottle is pointing at. With very young children you might want to prompt them with one or two little formulas such as "I like [name] because he/she..." or "[name] is really good at..."

The child being complimented just says Thank you (no rebutting of the compliment allowed!) and then it is their turn to spin the bottle.

If the bottle ends up pointing directly back at the spinner, the rules are still the same, the spinner has to say something nice about themselves ("I like me because...", etc) and then they get to spin again.

Happy parenting

Cassie