On the playground the other day, one of the kids came running up “I’m afraid of ants!” she said “They are scary!” Without missing a beat, my co-worker jumped in to the conversation “Oh really?” She said “I think they are so cool!” She pointed out all the things that they were doing and finished off by saying “Besides, think how scary WE must be to THEM! We are so much bigger then they are!” In a much sunnier mood, the child ran off to play.

About ten minutes later she ran back up to us “Look at this!” She said with great enthusiasm. In the palm of her hand was a giant, dead, cicada. “Wow!” we agreed “Look at that!” She then organized a group of kids to collect all of the cicadas they could find for the science table.

That is the power of projecting confidence. Whether it is about things that you find creepy-crawly, or even your kids starting a new school, they read so much from your emotions. If you can project confidence in what is going on they will model that.