Genuinnes and Spontanneity coupled with healthy motivation

Thinking of the post about kind words ...
Eyes, gestures, tone of voice, may mean more sometimes then the actual words. Actually babies can perceive only that, since they don't understand the words.
So I suspect the younger the children are the more sensitive they are to our true internal attitude rather then reaction that we manufacture in "educational" purposes.

It is much more difficult, I believe, to alter your body language than rehearse and shoot the proper words. Spontaneous genuine expression with love, care, respect, open mindedness motivated by desire to help the child to flourish into their own personality rather than sculpting our ideal goes a long long way.

The expression can be wordless and yet more effective. Comes to mind an old saying that parents teach by their own example .
So, if we want our kids to be : healthy, confident, enthusiastic, curious, open minded, self-sufficient, happy, behaving naturally, not shy to be who they are, with healthy self-esteem, no arrogance and not afraid to make mistakes or look foolish, we need to develop these qualities in ourselves.

But how to do that? This is a bigger discussion but I think ironically, it starts with relaxing into who we already are as opposed to struggling to become "better".
Trusting that we are worthy and capable individuals. We do not have to pretend to be smarter, stronger, more skillful then we already are. We can be weak, might not know many things, and be helpless at times. But the key is to be OK with all that and try not to cover up and look "good". That's the real strength and courage.

I believe setting that example would be much more effective in helping children to be happy and successful adults then giving them lots of goal oriented and competing skills.

Recently my son admitted to his classmates, who were passing a harmless snake to each other, that he doesn't want to touch it because he is afraid of snakes. I hope he stays that courageous.