Maintaining our children’s health as they grow up is an essential part of our lives as parents. However, this can be quite challenging to do alongside our already busy lives. Thankfully, there are simple ways we can start our children’s path to a healthy life without investing too much time and money into it. Here are a couple of simple ways you can help lead your children to live a healthy lifestyle.
Introduce Them to an Active Life
“A tired kid is a good kid,” as the old saying goes, and this saying is particularly true, especially for children that seem to have an immense amount of energy. Children are walking energy bars, and sometimes, them running around the house wreaking havoc wherever they go can be problematic both to the house and our sanity. However, there are ways you can start chipping through your children’s energy tank, and one way is by introducing them to an active life.
There are many options for an active life for children, simply because they have so much potential for this kind of life. You can introduce them to sports such as basketball or soccer. You can also introduce them to just simple but fun exercises such as jogging and running. Camping is also a great option if your children love the outdoor. An active life will surely healthily exhaust your children, and once they are exhausted, you don’t have to worry about them running around the house as much anymore.
Teach Them About the Heart
One of the most common illnesses that adult Americans have is heart disease. It’s estimated that 30 million US adults are diagnosed with heart disease. Regardless of the kind of disease, any problems with your heart can be detrimental to your overall health in the future. This is why we have to teach our children how they can take care of their hearts.
You can start by doing your own research regarding why Americans develop heart disease and how to counter them. Introducing your children to a proper diet can also be helpful in the future: don’t force them to eat vegetables, instead teach them why they need to eat vegetables. It’s not as simple as forcing someone to eat something, but it will at least start them on the right path.
Get Them to Sleep
Sleeping is essential to children because this is when their growth hormones are in full force. It’s important that you give them a proper sleeping schedule, and you must reinforce this in positive ways. Give your children a meaningful reward after a good night’s rest. This can come in many forms, such as their favorite chocolate bar or some playtime with their friends. Giving them reinforcement will ensure that they’ll continue to follow the same schedule every day. Additionally, when your children are finally sleeping, you can have some quiet and alone time with yourself.
Introduce Them to a Support Group
You must establish your children’s interpersonal relationships as they grow up. This can be as simple as letting them join a daycare center to meet new friends and other people. Exposure to social situations is important if you want them to be successful in life. Moreover, support groups can help your child become resilient against mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. It’ll give them the essential self-esteem they need to combat these mental illnesses and so much more. Remember that a resilient child is only as resilient as their support group, so make sure to establish a healthy support group for your child early on.
Reinforcing Healthy Habits
Lastly, the process of introducing your child into a healthy life isn’t complete if you don’t reinforce their healthy habits. Quite similar to the example we gave when teaching your children a good night’s rest, you must reward other healthy habits they might have. Some children might make particular habits that they don’t necessarily think are healthy, and you must bring that to light and reward them for doing it. Remember that children primarily learn from their environment and reinforcement, and by doing both of these things, you can start them on the road to a healthy life.
The way we take care of our children doesn’t have to be so complicated and expensive. Through the process of experiential learning and reinforcement, your children can learn healthy habits by themselves. The best part of it all is that they organically learn these things, so they don’t question them later down the line. This will also teach your children how they can teach their own children in the future. It’s a healthy cycle that keeps on giving.