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 adopt them for yours.

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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 practising 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!