Help and advice for Parents

What do you say to your children?

Words have tremendous power, they can create or destroy.
If you say something often enough to your child then that’s what he/she is likely to become?

If a child constantly has negative words spoken to them or over them then they are likely to become more of what you are saying. For example if a child hears “you’re stupid” “you’ll never be good at…..” “you’re really lazy” then that child is likely to believe what they hear, produce more of this and become what they hear.
In reverse if a child hears “you’re really good at…” ” I love you’re helpful attitude” “you work really hard at…” then the child is likely to produce more of this.

It’s important that your child has good positive input from you.
If your child isn’t so good at a particular activity or educational subject then don’t spend your time pointing this out to your child. Your child is likely to know that he/she’s not good at it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t help and encourage your child to improve his/her skills but not by criticizing or pointing out their lack of ability.

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It’s important that we learn about childhood obesity. It’s becoming prevalent.
Give your child a healthy diet and encourage them to play games that expend energy.

 Here are the next 3 Child Obesity Prevention tips 

Childhood obesity prevention tip 3.
Know what our children eat

It can be so easy as your child gets older to just let them take and eat whatever they like or can find in the house. It is better to give your child healthy snacks than to provide them with money to buy their own on a very regular basis. Children’s healthy eating habits start early.

Childhood obesity prevention tip 4.
Cook your own food wherever possible

If you cook your own food you know exactly what you’re putting into your child. Grill food instead of frying it so that you don’t add too much extra fat. Your child will quickly get used to difference in taste. We need to make sure we provide a healthy balanced diet for children in our care.

Childhood obesity prevention tip 5.
Sit down together to eat regularly

Just cook one meal for the whole family. Often we do everything in a rush and don’t have time to sit down and eat a healthy meal together. This not only involves spending quality time together but it also means you have time observe what your child eats and they can see the healthy balance diet you’re eating!!!!!

  I was watching a TV program this week about childhood obesity. It introduced us to overweight toddler and older children. The childhood obesity rates are climbing in many “Western” Countries. Some of the children featured didn’t necessary look at if they were in the obese category. Childhood obesity prevention is our responsibility we need to accept the responsibility of giving our child a healthy diet.  

Being obese can affect a child’s health as well as their social well being.

Learn how to help you child on the right road and prevent childhood obesity in your child.    

 Read the first two of childhood Prevention Tips  (more…)

I have been looking after my mother this week. A friend made a comment yesterday about this time of life being a second childhood.
As people get older they sleep more, frequently forget where  they’ve put things, frustrate us and get moody when they don’t get their own way.
Despite all this we love them and want the best for them just as we do for our children.

On Saturday I took my mother shopping and we had lunch while we were at the Mall.

I like to observe what is happening around me. I was watching the family on the next table and noticed how they dealt with their three year old little girl. She had been eating her food quite nicely and then decided to start getting up and down off her chair. Her Father asked her to sit down but she ignored him. Her parents then ignored her  making no eye contact and continued to have a conversation which didn’t include her. She was not getting the attention she wanted so after a couple of minutes she climbed up onto her chair and sat down. Her parents quickly responded to the desired behavior and they immediately included her in the conversation.

Often when children misbehave it’s because they want attention and often get it in responce to their bad behavior. If we give attention for the good behavior and ignore  where possible the bad behavior we may get more of the behavior we want.

This type of rewarding the good behaior works for many children but may take time and patience and much repetition to get the desired results.  

Financial restraints often make it necessary for mothers to return to work soon after having a baby.This can be a very stressful time, your hormones may be all over the place and many parents find the decision as to when to return to work quite a difficult one to make.  

Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself before deciding when to return to work:    (more…)

During this week I heard a comment from a parent that I’ve heard many times. ”My child’s not ready to do ……..,” In some instances this is perfectly true but I have observed two other things that sometime go with this comment.

1.  A comment which includes the word I (meaning the parent). I don’t like having to …….. when he (makes a mess, wets the floor, spills his food). I don’t have time to let him do…….., I find it difficult when he….. These types of comments can be an indication that (more…)

I was helping to run the parenting course again today. It’s good to see parents trying a diffferent approaches and having them report that something has change in their family life. It might only be a small something but it’s change. Last week they picked one thing related to how they delt with misbehavior that they felt was not working and tried a different strategy. If what you are implimenting isn’t getting the desired effect then try something new. 

Let us know things that work and don’t work for you and your family.