Sometimes, no matter what…
you do or how you think it is going to turn out it doesn’t turn out that way. Most of the time it is so much better than you could have ever imagined.
If you believe in the Universe you know it has a bigger plan than you could have ever dreamed.
That was the same with the launching of my book. I did not set out to make millions, my dream was for kids to read my book and for them to feel empowered to make changes in their life.
As parents, we want our kids to grow up feeling empowered to make changes, the strength to follow their heart, and to be their true authentic self. We all know living in this world is sometimes really hard with the bullying that goes on and the judgement of each other. It makes me so sad to hear these stories over and over about how some kids are treating other kids.
What can we do?
Here are 3 things we can do on a daily basis to empower our kids:
1. Talk With Them About Sharing Their Feelings and Telling Their Truth
Teach your child it is okay to share their feelings and thoughts. I just taught a woman’s class on awareness of our thoughts or that story that sounds like a broken record and plays over and over again in our heads. Why do we think kids are any different. We need to make children aware of their thoughts and how to process them. I always ask my daughter what is going on in that beautiful brain of yours. She replied once, “Oh mom I was just thinking of how we got here on earth with all that space up there.” Wow right!!! I’ll tell her thank you for sharing and then we have a conversation about it. Or I give her an example of my thoughts such as when I was afraid to start my social media adventure and I explained to her why I was scared and what I did to move through the fear.
2. Stop and Listen to What Our Kids are Saying
This is a big one because so many times we think we know what is best for our child and we don’t really listen to what they are saying. We also push our fears and dreams on them or we see their potential and we push them before they are ready. One time, my daughter hurt her knee but we were not sure how and we could not figure out what was causing her the pain. She quit skating and participating in PE at school. We did all kinds of things to try and help her feel better but it came down to my daughter just wanted to take a break from skating and all the work that went with it. In order to try and help her I got her physical therapy where she had to go 2-3 times a week and she kept telling me it was not helping. She finally said she wanted to quit all the therapies and just have surgery on her knee. She would get the rest she wanted for sure then! This is when I finally heard her, and we quit the therapies even though I thought we should continue and I did not mention her knee again. I let her control the situation. The only thing we did after that was Emotional Freedom Technique or tapping with Gabby Bernstein because my daughter happened (thank you Universe) to come into my studio at the time it was playing on a video I was watching. After that we never talked about her knee again. I didn’t even ask her how it felt. Nothing! 2 weeks went by and she came to me and said her knee felt better and that she had been testing it out at school and now she wanted to go back to skating. I said sure if you feel you are ready. She started skating the very next day and is doing great. If I would have not listened to her she would have felt not valued and that she had no power in controlling her life. This taught me to stop and really listen to what she has to say and hopefully she knows her voice does matter.
3. Show Them It’s Okay To Take Action
As parents we try to control our kids actions instead of letting them make changes and decisions on their own. When really we should let them go try new things and promote them taking action. If we say ‘no’ constantly to things that could really be changed we are showing our kids that they can’t make any changes and then they take that into their adult life not following their dreams. I am not talking about things that will hurt them, I am talking about little things like my daughter always wants to change her room. I say sure we can change it, if she helps with the design and work. I have to be creative so we are not spending/wasting money every 3 months when she is ready for a change. It’s fun. Letting them take action on their ideas gives them the freedom and the strength to be who there are supposed to be later in life. I love watching my daughter take action and not being afraid to do so.
My book, You Can Call Me Katelyn, did just this for a little girl. It inspired her to write her own book about her name. Her name is Aubrey and people started shortening her name to Aubs. She felt empowered enough to tell her truth that she didn’t like it when people shorten her name. She would say, “Please do not call me that I do not like it. Please call me Aubrey.” Now she is a little older and she is trying out a new nickname of her own choice. The nickname that she likes is ‘Bree.’ She is testing it out by seeing how it looks and feels when she signs her artwork.
Having her read the book she wrote to me filled my heart with joy. I could never have imagined that my book could inspire kids to write their own stories and share them with the world. It is mind boggling to me and makes writing books so worth it.
If you would like to read “You Can Call Me Katelyn” to your kids to plant the seed of empowerment and telling their truth you can find it on my website at https://keritcollins.com/ or on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2K6wfMP.
Thank you Universe for helping me get my message to kids and making them feel empowered!!!
about the author
Keri Collins is a children’s author who helps kids and parents better themselves by making better choices. She blogs about parenting and kids’ issues, and offers plenty of tips and other advice.