Tag Archives: family

Going Healthy, Life, Parenting, Tips

5 Ways to Promote Family Bonding Outside

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It’s so important to find the time to bond together as a family, now more than ever in this busy build.  It’s well worth going in the great outdoors with the family as this helps to temporarily break away from the constant connectivity of the phone and social media. This summer, plan an outdoor adventure with your family! These tips will help you and your family bond in the great outdoors, regardless of age.

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Traveling

 Vacations are a great way to relax and connect with your family. There are plenty of ways to have a kid-friendly vacation. Some ideas would be flying, taking a cruise, train, or even a classic road trip. Sites like StressFreeCarRental.com make it easy and, well, stress free, to rent the perfect vehicle for your trip. There are so many options such as going to a city and exploring, staying at a resort, or maybe trying out some camping. But make sure to talk to your family about what they would prefer the most. It’s important to make sure that nobody has a bad time.

Plan things out together

As stated above, it’s best if everyone in the family can voice their wants and concerns when planning activities out. This helps kids with sharing the ownership of the activity but it also allows them to enjoy it more as well. Sitting together as a family and making suggestions is the best way to go. There are even websites that allow for family’s to create a vacation planner to share ideas for their itinerary.

Go on small escapes

Small escapes can be anything from a day trip, going out for a couple of hours, or even just something overnight. These are short but still, bring in some family fun time and bonding. This could entail going camping for the night in the woods, hiking in a nearby park, purchasing some dye paintball, or even just going on a picnic.

Gardening together

A very inexpensive save to have some outdoor time with your family would be to do some gardening together. Whether you have a large backyard, a balcony, or even an allotment, no size is too small for gardening. Teaching your kids to the garden will give them an educational experience about biology while helping the environment out. This also helps with creating a beautiful garden, where you can enjoy your harvest of veggies during dinner time. Plus this is given a great opportunity to take some cute family-friendly photos too.

Creating traditions

This is another great way to encourage children to get outside more. Creating a family tradition is a great way to keep up this yearly ritual. You can even base it all off of each season. For example, whenever autumn rolls around, your family could have a tradition of picking apples from an orchard or maybe visiting a pumpkin patch to purchase pumpkins. The same can be said for the summer or spring, there can be an annual tradition of picking berries in the forest or maybe going on a big hiking trip every year. If this is done annually, then it will have a deep connection with the family. This tradition could even continue with grandchildren too.

Life, Parenting

Providing a United Front: Being a Great Co-Parent After Divorce

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Getting a divorce is one of the hardest things we can all go through. When there are children involved, it means we’ve got to put a lot of our emotions to one side for the sake of being good parents. Learning to be an effective co-parent in this situation is a massive learning curve. Even though your relationship hasn’t worked, your parenting can. Let’s show you how you can co-parent effectively after a separation.

Have an Open Dialogue With Your Your Co-Parent

This is one of the fundamentals and is a prominent part of a child custody attorney’s mediation strategy. But it makes sense to keep an open dialogue with your ex-partner. For the sake of the children, keeping each other informed of events and schedules that could affect the children will make the relationship work. It can be difficult, but you have to guarantee that you are keeping each other informed about every change because if you do not, and your child becomes the key source of information. This soon results in crossed wires, which also makes your child feel like they are right in the middle.

Keeping Both Households Consistent

Children need structure, and this means that in both households, you’ve got to keep a similar approach. When you run a tight ship in both homes, this will create routine and security for your kids. No matter wherever your child goes, they know that certain rules will come into play, so they can have a greater sense of well-being. That sense of the unknown is what every child fears, so having the same environment in both places creates that all-important consistency.

Remove Emotions from the Equation 

As hard as it is to separate your emotions, you’ve got to recognize this is almost like a business arrangement. As tempting as it is to try and make a big custody grab and have the children full-time, you’ve got to remove your emotions from the equation and be realistic about your commitments. If you work a 60 hour week, are you actually going to be able to be an effective parent full-time? When both of you hit a realistic schedule that caters to everyone, this will make life a lot easier. You should also remember that, even though you and your partner are not together anymore, this doesn’t mean your ex is a bad parent. You’ve got to realize that just because your ex and yourself didn’t work out, it doesn’t mean that you can’t both be better parents. It is still possible for both of you to be great parents, and in fact, you may find that you are better at working together when you are not together.

It is not easy, but you must remember that for the sake of the children, you both have to provide consistency. You and your ex-partner love your children, and this means that your child needs the love of both of you. It is a hard balance to get right, but you should not be an unbalanced parent. This is why it is so important to provide a united front.

Going Healthy, Health, Life, Lifestyle, Parenting, Tips

How to Better Care for Ageing Parents and Grandparents

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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.

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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.