For many parents, it is a top priority to ensure that their family has good health, happiness and overall high quality of life. While this is a lofty goal that can seem like a big job to take on, there are many small steps that you can take to set your family up for success. If you approach your family’s wellbeing from a multifaceted and holistic approach, you can be sure to improve their livelihood now and into the future.
Take Time for a Healthy Breakfast
Mornings can be difficult for many families. Dragging everyone out of bed in addition to a to-do list that is often too long with too little time to accomplish it, it can feel difficult to find time for a healthy breakfast; however, a healthy breakfast is a must. Not only does it lead to improved concentration and a sense of fullness throughout the day, but it also helps give everyone’s brain the power it needs. While quick options are key when time is limited, not all breakfasts are created equal, like steel cut oats vs rolled oats. If you want to ensure that your family has the fuel that they need to take on the day, make sure that you equip them with a nutrient-rich option.
Cultivate a Positive a Relationship With Food
Another key area that you can help your family grow in is the relationship that everyone has with food. Talking about food as a way for your body to gain fuel and energy to help you get through the day is a very different and more positive approach than classifying foods as good and bad. If you take the time to help your children cultivate a positive relationship with food, you can benefit their wellbeing for many years to come.
Sit Down and Eat Together
As schedules become busier, it can be easy to push a sit-down dinner to the wayside. Despite conflicting schedules and competing priorities, if you want your family to live healthily, you need to sit down and have dinner together. Not only can this invite key conversations, time for bonding and a time just for the family, but it also can have long-term effects on diet, their relationship with food and healthy eating habits. Even if time is short, make sure that you carve out 30 minutes for a dinner together.
Get Outside and Stay Active
As a family, you prioritize physical fitness. By investing time in physical activity, you can help keep their hearts pumping, blood flowing and get them moving. This can have significant benefits for children in giving them an outlet to express energy; however, it is also key to those healthy habits. As adults, it is important to get a consistent amount of moderate to vigorous exercise each week to stay well, and you can help your whole family by spending some time out in nature staying fit together.
Talk Through Problems as a Team
Whether your children express this to you or not, they are likely looking to you to set a good example. This gives you a wonderful opportunity, especially when problems arise. Talking through problems and modeling navigating difficult situations can help them process decision-making. When there are issues at home, consider holding meetings as a family and solve the problems as a team. This will leave you assured that they are ready to handle any issue as it arises in their lives with thought, care and intention.
Teach and Model Whenever You Can
You are one of the most important role models in your child’s life and your children will learn so much from you. Therefore it is so critically important to take every opportunity that you can to instill healthy patterns and behaviors with your children. Everything from developing healthy coping and ways to manage stress to teaching a focus on progress and not perfection, are key lessons that you can pass on.
Parenting can feel like a lofty and heavy role that you carry. While this is one of the most important responsibilities, if you invest in your children and your family, this will surely have a positive impact on their health, wellness and satisfaction.