When you decide to create a family, you do everything that you can to keep your pregnancy as healthy as possible. You take your vitamins and you exercise lightly while you are growing your new baby. When your child has arrived into the world, you take them for their vaccinations and you choose the best way to feed them with their health and yours in mind. The health of your children is important for you, but it’s also important for them, too.
It’s important for any parent to feel as if their family is a healthy one and families that adopt healthy habits are those that are the strongest and fittest. You’ll think about booking the children in with the family dentist every time an appointment is due, and you’ll ensure that their eyes are healthy, too. There are a lot of common habits that healthy families adopt and the healthiest families all have these habits in common. We’ve got four habits that are prevalent in healthy families so that you can learn to adapt them for yours.
Eating together can make a huge difference to the psychological and emotional health of your whole family. Sitting down at the table isn’t just about keeping an eye on the kids when they eat. It’s about conversation and community and cultivating that bond that keeps your children feeling happy and secure. Children that feel secure within themselves are able to grow into stable, confident adults who are able to connect emotionally to others.
Unplug the whole family by putting down screens and learning to spend time in the outdoors together. Pull out the board games on a rainy day and learn to be together when you overcome challenges. Children don’t need to spend all their time staring at a computer, and neither do you, come to think of it.
Working out doesn’t have to be a chore, especially when you get the whole family involved. Think trampolining and rock-climbing. Think family touch football. Your whole family can have so much fun working out that it won’t even feel like you’re trying to be healthy. It’s a great way to connect and bond with the children and it allows them to see a fun and playful side of you.
Cooking together can help you to teach your children the benefits of healthy eating. If they can have a hand at touching, smelling, and mixing the ingredients, they get a hands-on lesson in food preparation while being taught the value of a healthy eating plan. You can, of course, bake cakes and teach them to moderate their sugar. Plus, cakes and biscuits can be so much fun.
Ultimately, you will need to set a good example to your children and a big part of that is joining in with them and practicing what you preach. Be patient and don’t overestimate the knowledge that your children will have about the healthy practices that they need to adopt. Families that are healthy together naturally communicate better – you’ll see!
Sometimes my friends and I put our phones face down in the middle of the table during dinner so we can unplug.
I agree that doing some of the simple things together even cooking will lead to more happiness together. My kids love to help me in the kitchen.
These are all great things to do as a family! One of my favorites to do is unplugging and taking my son to the park. Old fasioned fun outside is our favorite way to pass time!
Out of all of these, we don’t often get to sit and eat together. Why? Because we are mostly doing the other tasks together. We camp, hike, bike, own four horses and are always in the midst of some sort of out door activity.
All these habits are so important, especially when it comes to promoting good health with the family. Unpluggin and enjoying time outside is so important to health and the wellbeing of the unit I think.
We love cooking and eating together. I think we really need to unplug more. It’s easier when we’re on vacation or out doing something, but at home – we are on our phones or tablets way too much.
All great points happy to say that we hit all of these on a regular basis. Eating together is #1 and working out together is a close number 2 with runs, walks, swimming, and biking.
I love that eating together is on here I think it’s so important!
We don’t have kids yet but we love to cook together. And someday we will involve our kids in that.
Yes I don’t let my kid watch my iPhone or the computer it’s too close he’s just going to mess up his eyes at an early age and get glasses later. I agree