Family portraits can help boost your child's self esteem
A benefit to help to boost your children's self-esteem
I love looking at our family portraits everyday while I'm working at home, cooking, chilling in my living room. They brings me so much joy! I do admit that this year I miss my children quite a bit. It's a big change for me to send both kids to full days at school for the first time!!! Many of you know exactly how I feel as a mom. I really enjoy surrounding myself with family portraits and it definitely helps to cheer me up and appreciate what I have.
There is more to this. Did you know displaying family portraits on your wall is beneficial for your children's self-esteem? Recently I came across an interesting article about the benefits of having family portraits on the walls of your home.
Professor Geoff Beattie, Head of School and Dean of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester said: 'We cannot underestimate the power of photographs to keep us feeling linked to others and belonging. They cement us into our networks. 'For children in particular, looking at photographs is part of the socializing process; learning who you are and where you fit into the family. By displaying photographs of our children at different stages of their lives, we are making a very public statement that we are proud of them. '
I knew how those family portraits made me feel but I had no clue how these portraits affect my children and what kind of impact they have by doing so.
David Krauss, a licensed psychologist from Cleveland, Ohio also says, “I think it is really important to show a family as a family unit. It is so helpful for children to see themselves as a valued and important part of that family unit. A photographer’s job is to create and make the image look like a safe holding space for kids where they are safe and protected. Kids get it on a really simple level.”
Krauss is one of the earliest pioneers in using people’s personal photography and family albums to assist in mental health counseling and therapy. He co-authored “Photo Therapy and Mental Health” in 1983 that is considered an important text for the use of photography in therapy.
Research has also shown that 71 per cent of parents found that having pictures displayed around the home boosts a child's self-image and self-esteem, with 90 per cent stating that they believe children to be more aware of their own image. Displaying the photographs of your kids shows them that they matter in the family. In addition, the photographs provide them with a sense of belonging and security. They are reminded of family love every time they walk past the portraits. It can help us raise children with stronger confidence in their own worth and abilities.
Family portraits on Display vs Digital Images
“My bias is very simple. I think they (family photographs) should be on the wall,” says Krauss. “I am very conservative about self-esteem and I think placing a family photo someplace in the home where the child can see it every day without having to turn on a device or click around on a computer to find it really hits home for that child this sense of reassurance and comfort. They have a certainty about them and a protecting quality that nurtures a child. It lets them know where they are in the pecking order and that they are loved and cared for,” says Krauss.
(Picture shown above) MINI PRINTS WITH A WOODEN DISPLAY | 8 individual 3.3×4 prints. Cute and modern, Mini Snapshots are a fun and a creative way to display your loved ones at work and home.
Display family portrait in children's room
Additionally, Krauss recommends having photographs of a child with their family placed in the child’s bedroom so it can be among the last things they see before sleep and the first thing they may see before beginning their day.
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