The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of mothers' parenting attitudes perceived by floating and left-behind children in China on children's self-esteem. A sample of 520 children in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades elementary school in Zhejiang Province O city and Henan Province P city. The mother's parenting attitude scale(Jiang, 2010) was used to assess the mother's parenting attitude perceived by the child. The self-esteem scale(Wang, 1999) was used to assess children's self-esteem. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach'α, independent sample t-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis using SPSS 23.0 program.The major findings of this study were as follows: First, mother's parenting attitude and self-esteem showed no significant difference according to floating children's gender, mother's educational background and the time they came to the city. There was difference in mother's parenting attitude according to the floating children's grade, the higher the grade, the higher the perceived overprotective parenting attitude. self-esteem and mother's parenting attitude showed significant differences according to the intimacy with the mother. The higher the intimacy with the mother, the higher self-esteem and the mother's affectionate parenting attitude. Among the mother's parenting attitudes perceived by floating children, overprotective parenting attitudes and rejective parenting attitudes showed a significant negative correlation with self-esteem, affectionate parenting attitudes showed a significant positive correlation with self-esteem. This means that the higher the mother's affectionate parenting attitude is, the higher the self-esteem is, and the higher the overprotective and rejective parenting attitude is, the lower the self-esteem is perceived. The intimacy with the mother perceived by the floating children and the affectionate and rejection of parenting attitudes of the mothers had an effect on the self-esteem of the influential children. Second, there was no difference in mother's the parenting attitudes according to left-behind children's grade, mother's educational and there were significant differences according to gender, intimacy with mother, contact method, and frequency of contact, boys perceived their mother's overprotective parenting attitude higher than that of girls. The higher the intimacy and the frequency of contact with the mother, the higher the perception of the mother's affectionate parenting attitude, the lower the overprotective and rejective parenting attitudes were perceived, and direct contact method with the mother also perceived the affectionate parenting attitude higher. There was no significant difference in self-esteem according to gender, mother's educational background and closeness with mother, and there were significant differences according to grade, contact method, and frequency of contact, 5th graders perceived higher self-esteem than 4th graders, and 4th graders perceived higher self-esteem than 6th graders. Self-esteem was higher as the communication method and frequency of contact with the mother were higher. Among the mother's parenting attitudes perceived by left-behind children, overprotective parenting attitudes showed a significant negative correlation with self-esteem, and affectionate parenting attitudes showed a significant positive correlation with self-esteem. This means that the higher the mother's affectionate parenting attitude is, the higher the self-esteem is, and the higher the overprotective parenting attitude is, the lower the self-esteem is perceived.