When you have an elderly family member whose mobility is declining or they have particular care needs, finding the right approach to their care is obviously a top concern for you. Caring for them well is something that will depend on their particular needs and circumstances, and there’s a range of options for you to consider. For instance, many have found value in seeking out Home Care Services to help care for their ageing family members right from their own home, while others have made use of residential care homes for their loved ones. We’re going to talk today about offering the best care possible.
Assess Their Needs Objectively
First of all, you need to take a look at the specific needs your elderly family member has. You should try to do this in the most objective way possible, which is something that’s not always easy to do. You’ll want to make sure that you’re being realistic and you’re seeing the situation as it really is and not glossing over things that are difficult to accept.
Adapt the Home Accordingly
When you know what your familiar member’s needs are, you can start to help adapt your home to suit them, assuming they’re living with you. If they’re living in their own home, you should take steps to try and adapt their home to their needs. Things like hand rails and ramps can make a big difference and ensure falls are less likely to happen.
Include Them in the Discussions
When you’re deciding which path to take with regards to the care needs of your ageing parents or grandparents – such as whether a reputable home care of Philadelphia company should be involved – you should be sure to include them in these discussions. There’s nothing more insulting than just assuming that you can make their decisions for them without waiting to console them at all. This is going to impact them first and foremost, so you have to respect what they want too.
Get Help from a Carer
Getting help from a professional carer who’s able to offer your family a professional standard of care might be what you need. Sometimes, there’s too much for you all to deal with alone, and having the help of an experienced pro might be a real difference for you. Sites like careasone.com can help you to find the care services that you might be looking for.
Take Your Own Needs Into Account Too
As well as taking their needs into account, you also need to do your best to consider your own needs. This is something that’s often overlooked and neglected but it shouldn’t be that way. Your own needs matter just as much and if you want to make sure you do the right thing by your relative, you need to make sure that they’re getting the right level of care. If you’re not capable of offering it, seek help instead.
Being a good carer for an elderly relative or anyone in your family in need of care always starts with you. Trying to take on too much and thinking you can handle a person’s care needs when you really can’t is never good for anyone involved. So do try to be honest with yourself and what you’re able to offer.
When out in the world, bullying can be the first traumatic experience your child may have to go through. Unjustified aggressive behaviors from a bully can make your child feel rejected and unaccepted. However, it not only affects the victim, but it also affects the bully, which gives birth to much bigger problems in the future of these kids.
Apart from the immediate pain of bullying, victims are more likely to develop physical and emotional disorders in the future. However, bullying is not only physical, and it comes in many forms. Apart from physical abuse, it can be in the manners of social abuse, verbal abuse, and cyberbullying. These all may come in different patterns, but they leave a very similar effect on the victim, which leads to a harmful and lasting impact on your child’s health.
Few Lasting Effects of Bullying Are:
— Anxiety.
— Loss of self-confidence.
— Depression.
— Change in eating habits.
— Losing interest in school.
— Self-isolation.
So, when you are a parent, how do you prevent bullying at school and keep your kids out of harm’s way? An effective way to stop it is by communicating with your child from early childhood, especially in school.
However, that is not enough. You may have to take some extra steps to ensure your child has a bright future as an adult. Here are the measures you need to take that’ll ensure your kid’s bright future. Let’s get started:
Seeking Help from a Counselor
When you find your child to be a victim or perpetrator of this behavior, seeking professional help from a counselor becomes very crucial. For victims of bullying, counseling can help teach them ways to cope with a bully, thus breaking the victimization cycle. Simultaneously, a counselor will help them in building their self-confidence.
Additionally, with the help of therapy, the victim can learn to manage complex emotions like anxiety, guilt, shame, and sadness. Despite the age of the child, they will need guidance. A counselor will help them learn the importance of developing assertiveness and proactive communication with the parents and the teachers at school.
Furthermore, a counselor will teach a victim therapeutic ways to enhance self-relaxation, such as mindfulness, expressive arts, and meditation. So when you enlist a victim in therapy, you are providing them with a safe outlet. It’ll help them in dealing with their frustration and Anxiety with a trusted and qualified adult.
Boost Your Kid’s Self Confidence
A child that does not lack self-confidence is more likely to have better self-esteem. However, to give your child the confidence they need to tackle the outside world, parents play an essential role. Make sure you encourage them to make creative choices at school or home.
When your child is making difficult decisions, they get better at problem-solving, which can help them with bullying. Also, children who take part in activities have more self-confidence than those who are not active at school. These activities can be playing sports, learning a musical instrument, or dancing.
As long as your child has friends at school, the chances of getting bullied at school become significantly less. If you find your child has fewer friends at school, encourage them to join a school club or their choice. Also, they can try volunteering in a social activity, take an exciting part in a school play are some of the most compelling ideas. Having friends with similar interests will again help them keep bullies away.
Soon, they will start gaining success in the activities they have chosen. With a new sense of achievement, your child will feel more confident and more able to deal with it. The new skills they have gained will make them feel proud. As a result, they make new friends at school and help other students facing a similar situation.
Get Involved With Your Kids
Try to stay up to date with your child’s school events. Knowing what’s going on in the school will allow you to get involved with your kids when they are in school—volunteer to help in school activities by joining events.
As a result, you get a perfect opportunity to become acquainted with your child’s friends and teachers. Knowing how and with whom they spend their time in school will ensure that your kids aren’t getting bullied at school. And if they are being bullied, you can discuss the problems with the school authority and find a solution to deal with this problem.
Make sure you don’t miss reading school flyers or class newsletters that come to your home. Discuss them with your kids, so they know you are keen to take part in them. Further, it can help you understand the policies related to bullying at school and what to do when your child faces such a situation.
Lead by Example
Children learn from what they see and based on that, they develop a behavior. That’s why it becomes crucial for a parent to treat others with respect. Try using phrases such as “thank you” and “please” and be more kind towards others. Your kids will follow your lead and become a more functional part of society. Also, it will help them in building healthy habits that can assist them in their personal and professional lives.
If you are a parent of a young child, educate them about the importance of being fair and humble, so they play nicely at school. Tell them to respect others’ feelings and choices, and they cannot just take anything they want. If they need anything, they should ask for their permission first. This will help your child not become a bully.
To Sum it Up
Bullying is one of the most prevalent problems affecting the youth today. So, if a child is a victim of this unhealthy behavior, they can develop long and short-term consequences. However, if you give your child the benefit of some extra care, they can easily find their way out of this issue. The steps mentioned above will help your child deal with specific situations. Plus, helping them in building self-confidence.
There is no doubt that parents want their kids to do well in school, and if every child got As across the board in every subject, perhaps the world would be a better, fairer place to live. However, you don’t need anyone to remind you that is not the case. Sometimes, kids will struggle at school. There are many reasons this could happen, from being too easily distracted to not being engaged, to having undiagnosed learning difficulties.
It will break your heart as a parent to see your child struggle, especially during their formative years when they care too much about what others think of them. Therefore, it’s on you to support them if they show signs of struggling at school, and here’s you can achieve that.
Educate Yourself On Development
It’s easy to compare your child to other children, or even yourself when you were their age. The problem with this is that everyone learns at a different rate, so you should educate yourself on educational development to get a better idea of where your child is and where they should be.
This can apply to the spelling development stages and subjects like Math, especially in their younger years when these are considered the most important subjects. Understanding your child’s current level compared to the average will give you a better idea of what to focus on to help them achieve their potential in the classroom.
Work With the Teacher
As you won’t be with your child during the school day, you must rely on the teacher to help you understand their performance. In most cases, this is achieved through reports each semester or the occasional email if the teacher is particularly concerned.
If your child is showing severe problems with their education, you can work with the teacher to try something different. This ensures total transparency in your child’s education and will help both of you reach an understanding about the best ways to proceed. The teacher may be unaware of certain needs your child has, whereas you will not have an idea of their behavior in the classroom that could affect their progress.
Make Some Time At Home
All teachers will tell you there is a direct correlation between kids who are successful and parents who put in the effort to help with their education at home. Now, this can be a tricky tightrope to walk along. Some parents work odd shifts and rarely get to see their kids after school. However, you may still be able to find the opportunity to iron out any issues.
You can take some time in the morning or at the weekend to go over homework with your child or focus on subjects they are not confident in. The teacher can provide additional materials, and you can strive to help your child understand these materials.
Visit the Doctor
If you have tried as much as you can think of, but your child is still struggling at school, it could be a sign of a learning disorder. Many learning disorders, such as ADHD, can often go undetected if you do not see a doctor and have your child tested.
It may not even be a learning disorder. Your child may need glasses or experience hearing problems, which means they cannot focus as easily as the other kids in the class. Speaking to a doctor and getting a definitive answer will help you support your child better.
Consider Bad Influences
Kids are easily influenced by those around them. So, your child’s issues may not be to do with them, but rather the company they keep. If your child has a group of friends that are bad influences, they will find it more difficult to succeed at school.
Again, your child’s teacher can tell you about this, and you can work out a solution with them. Perhaps your child is separated from the rest of the group. Perhaps they can change classes. Whatever the solution, it should benefit your child.
Make Education Feel Cool
You already know that learning is cool, but this is something that doesn’t really hit kids until their later school years, or even after they leave school. So, you need to make learning look and feel cool to your child if you want to inspire them to try harder in the classroom.
Many teachers will do this by making their lessons fun. However, as you’re not a teacher, you can consider other ways to do this. If your child has a specific class they are good at, show them what type of cool careers they can get into with this. Even subjects they don’t enjoy can be cool with the right approach.
Help Them Find Their Passion
If your child shows a blatant indifference to school and education, it could be that they haven’t found something they really love just yet. This might be because they do not feel challenged, or they don’t consider themselves good at anything.
Teachers can be a great source of inspiration, but they cannot solely focus on your child, as this would be unfair to other kids. Take the opportunity to find out what your child loves and get them to use this to inspire them to enjoy all types of subjects. They may be surprised that many classes can intertwine, which gives them a fresh perspective on their education.
Make Subjects Relevant to Them
Your child may also show indifference because the way the class is taught does not seem relevant to them. After all, how many people do you know who buy 100 watermelons measuring 14 inches in diameter and need to fit them into the back of a car? Very few.
Instead of giving them problems like this, think about what they enjoy outside of school and apply it to their lessons. This might be football, video games, or their favorite TV show. Whatever it is, this relevance can keep them engaged.
Motivate Through Consequence
It’s tough balancing punishment and consequences as a parent. Punishment is the easy way out, but it’s also not an effective method. So, you should think about how to encourage your child’s education through consequences.
This will not just give them the impetus they need to do the work, but will also prepare them for the real world. So much of their adult life will be based around consequences, so they may as well learn how to deal with them as early as possible. It may sound like a harsh approach, but it will help them grow as a person.
Help Them Accept Failure
Teaching your children that failure is just as important as success is a significant learning moment for them. Every day, kids are told that if they fail, they can consider their life over. But, this is not the case, and many people will not succeed without failing first.
This should mean they don’t try on their exam but instead help them understand that failure is the chance to learn something. Maybe they didn’t study hard enough, they have learned their lesson for next time, and likely won’t make the same mistake again.
School Success
Showing an interest in your child’s education will set them up for success at school and later in life. However, you must make sure that you do not overstep the boundary and put too much pressure on them. Instead, offer help when they need it and find the cause of their struggles to help them find the confidence and discipline to succeed.
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.