Why Labelling Kids Is Bad

Ever caught yourself labeling your child in your head, or when speaking about htem? Oh, she’s a wild one, he’s so smart, he’s misbehaved, and so on. 

And although you may not ever utter these labels to your child, they can still wreak havoc on your child’s identity and development. 

Consider this: when you believe a child is ‘bad/rowdy’, you will automatically begin to treat them as if they’re bad. And when you treat them as if they’re bad, they start to believe they’re bad. And when they believe they’re bad, that’s when it becomes detrimental  to them, because they continue to behave as if they’re bad. 

And this concept translates to ‘good’ labels as well. For example, when you label a child as ‘smart’, they begin to internalize this label. And when they make a mistake, their internal worth which is now based on success and achievement, doesn’t live up. So when they fail, they become consumed because they cannot separate that internal worth and identity from their external reality.