Over the past few years, healthy eating has become a buzzword for all of the right reasons. We now understand far better how what we eat impacts everything from cognitive function through to our hearing health. It’s hardly surprising, then, that as a parent, you’re keen to inject these benefits into the food you serve to your children.
Unfortunately, with kids requiring very different nutritional intake, it’s all too easy to get healthy eating wrong here. This can be a problem considering that not getting the right nutrients in childhood has been proven to significantly impact later life, affecting cognitive development and increasing the risks of escalating issues like obesity, diabetes, and even heart disease. Furthermore, studies have revealed that children who don’t eat right are 50% more likely to be diagnosed with hearing loss during pediatric hearing tests. Of course, each of these is a worst-case scenario, most likely caused by ongoing poor diets throughout childhood. However, to keep these issues truly at bay, it’s also essential to avoid the following mistakes.
# 1 – The limitation mindset
As adults, changing our diets often means limiting certain foods, keeping portions smaller, and generally making an effort not to indulge. For kids, however, the limitation of any foods can prove detrimental, increasing their desire for the sugary, fatty foods they aren’t allowed, and also generally preventing the sometimes extensive nutrition that they need to grow. Of course, no one’s saying that you should pile their plates high with endless chips, but healthy meals where they can eat as much as they want, finished with an occasional treat to satisfy their curiosity in that area, are far more likely to result in the growth, and balanced eating outlook, on which healthy diets rest.
Adult diets like Atkins and Keto encourage us to cut out carbs, but studies reveal that healthy childhood functioning relies on at least one carbohydrate per meal. What’s more, the fact that children under two can struggle to digest whole grain fibers means that those carbs should be things like the white bread and pasta we’ve been taught to avoid. This is because the higher glucose content in these foods plays a key role in healthy brain development, helping children to stay alert, curious, and receptive to learning all day long.
# 3 – Opting for low-fat dairy
As adults we’re often taught to fear fats in place of low-fat yogurts, semi-skimmed milk, and even reduced-fat cheeses, but these same foods can leave childhood diets severely lacking. That’s because full-fat dairy, particularly blue milk, is vital for childhood development, especially between the ages of one and two, as it ensures the fat stores and full vitamins that children need for the healthy development of bones, and growth in general.
Childhood diets can be confusing to get right when they’re often the opposite of what we consider ‘healthy’ eating for ourselves, but make sure that you research to give your kids the best possible shot at a healthier life moving forward.
Now more than ever it’s so important to begin practicing confidence and raising your children to be confident as well. Thanks to social media, societal pressures, the fast fashion industry, and the constant changes within beauty standards, more and more people become far more self-conscious. This has unfortunately reached young children as well. Television shows, YouTube videos, apps, games, toys, and anything else that a child consumes for entertainment is some form or another usually telling children that they need to change something about themselves.
This is terrifying and it especially shouldn’t be affecting children! As parents, how can we stop this? It’s important to know that you can’t control everything, you can’t control everything that your children see, do, and what they’re exposed to. It’s just not possible. Since their environment can’t always be controlled, it’s important to know that you can at least counteract it by raising your children to be confident.
Raising confident children, and letting them eat, live, and breathe self-esteem is going to be the best step to take as a parent is letting them know that they’re beautiful the way they are. It lets them know that they’re doing enough, and most of all, it helps them to not compare themselves to others and question themselves. These are some tips for helping your children become confident and to help you as the parent raise your little ones into becoming confident children with high self-esteem.
You’ll want to start this the moment you find out that you and your partner are going to have a child. Many soon-to-be parents, and even young parents, begin putting expectations onto their children. Putting expectations on your child, especially when they’re still just a fetus is going to set yourself and your child up for failure. This isn’t the way to grow confidence in your child, and this isn’t the way to have a healthy relationship with your child either.
Sure, while the idea of you and your partner fantasizing about your child becoming the one to cure cancer, become the next president, or major athlete is a very attractive idea, it’s better to not have those ideas or expectations. Instead, shake things up and envision all the fun possibilities that your child is going to have, thinking about their personality traits, what they’re going to find of interest, and how their character is going to be. In general, put healthy expectations on your child and build them up by thinking about their qualities, not what they can or will do.
Let them know that they’re perfect the way they are
It doesn’t matter how old or young your children are, you should always let them know they’re beautiful both inside and out. Starting young is going to be the best way to let them gain their self-esteem and to block out negative thoughts that state otherwise. This also includes not criticizing them often, especially when it comes to their appearance. If they styled their hair a certain way, compliment it. If they’re picking out their outfits or discovering their own style, just praise them.
Tell them it’s okay to have some insecurities
Everybody has their own insecurities, it’s just something that cannot be avoided. Let them know it’s normal to have insecurities but they shouldn’t eat them. Sometimes it’s fine to make changes because they may solve a bigger issue and they can help. Everyone has insecurities and sometimes there need to be solutions to these.
There’s nothing wrong with that and it should be accepted. However, if insecurities become a major problem and it’s obsessive, that’s when a problem happens. Even when raising confident children. It’s best to understand that in the end, they’ll still have insecurities eventually within their life. It’s just something that you’ll have to let it be.
Let them know change isn’t bad
As a parent, it’s vital that you let your little ones know that there isn’t anything wrong with making changes. Changes can even be a good thing that helps. For example, many parents will look into CO2 Laser Release | Lip Tie Infants | Tongue Tie Infants for these infants. As this is something that is known for causing breast feeding difficulties and other problems, the parent looks into making a change for the baby that will help them. Making changes about yourself or letting the parents help with making changes can truly be a good thing. A part of confidence is understanding this.
Show your confidence
Children love to emulate what their parents do. If you’re wanting to raise a confident child then you’re going to have to be confident yourself. This isn’t an easy task, confidence isn’t something that anyone is born with. It’s just something that comes naturally with a good environment and positive reinforcement. However, this is quite possibly going to be a mental challenge.
Parents have a lot of insecurities, whether it be age, their parenting styles, their occupation, weight, just basically anything at all. This can even include insecurities about common hair problems that should worry you anymore. In general, you’re going to have to mentally challenge yourself to drop your insecurities and accept yourself for who you are. Remember, to raise confident children means you must be confident yourself.
Teach them to accept compliments
This also applies to you as the parent. Sometimes it can be difficult to accept compliments, to a degree we’re almost programmed to not want to accept them. Accepting compliments isn’t bragging, it’s someone saying something nice. Teach your children to accept these compliments, accepting compliments is a way to let this positive reinforcement in. Positive reinforcements are the way to allow confidence to grow.
Build up your child
Building up your child is going to build up their confidence, belief in themselves, plus it’s going to help their development into a good person. If they did something good, cheer them on and praise them. If they’re sad and crying, hug them. Speak nicely to them, encourage them, and recognize their positive behavior and actions. This is all going to help them and it’s going to be incorporated in developing high self-esteem.
Get your whole family on board
Family, your friends, babysitters, and anyone else that is involved with your children. While it may be difficult to get teachers on board, trying to get others on board will help. It’s important to try your best to surround your children with positive reinforcement. You want people to be around your children that are going to be nice to nice, share words of wisdom, and encourage them.
It’s always great if a father and son can develop a strong bond. The father and son bond is a lifetime commitment that should be nurtured and strengthened with time, effort, and patience. And it’s something that you can build by doing different activities and actually spending time together. Maybe you’d like to know more about this.
So let’s take a look at the activities dads and sons bond over. The answer is simple: playing games. Playing games together is a great way to build strong relationships between dads and their sons. Video games, like Drift Hunters, are especially fun, as your son can be on the same team or against you. Whether you play with or against each other, the point of the game is to have fun and enjoy time together.
But aside from the initial games, let’s look at this interesting topic in more detail.
What is the Purpose of Dads & Sons Bonding Together?
With the current state of society, many parents are reluctant to spend time with their children, which can cause friction between them. The purpose of dads and ons bonding together is to give fathers an opportunity to connect with their kids in a relaxed and comfortable environment. The activities that they do include bowling, laser tag, board games and more.
Fathers use this time with their children to bond together and strengthen the relationship between them. It’s also about showing them that they’re there, creating a support system, and making sure that they are happy. So now we’re going to look at the activities that you can do together to develop this.
Different Activities for Dads and Sons to do Together
There are so many activities that dads and sons can do together, but there are also cool things you can do with your son other than just playing video games. It is important to bond with your son because this will affect his future. If you don’t bond with him now while he’s still young, then it might be harder to build a relationship later in life.
Many dads and sons work hard to forge a bond. However, with so many activities to do together, they often struggle on what activity to choose for the first time. Some suggestions for dad-son activities include: biking, playing ball, going for a walk, cooking together, going fishing or hunting. But you can also drill down on what your son is interested in, or what you like to do, and focus on that. If it’s going to a game, painting, watching a show, playing a retro video game like Crash Bandicoot, or anything else, it can allow you to indulge in a pastime together.
What are the Best Ways to Take Your Son on an Adventure?
Another thing that you could think about doing is the idea of going on an adventure together. It’s a nice idea for you to think about spending time together and creating a longer bond. There are a few ways to do this. Some of these ways include taking him camping, going to a zoo, going on a hike, and taking him fishing.
Camping is a great way for your son to get outside and have fun while being active. It’s also a great way to bond with him while staying close to nature. Fishing is always enjoyable. It doesn’t matter if you’re the one doing the catching or not, but it could be fun for both of you if you fish together. You can also make it more of an educational experience if you want by talking about different fish species at the lake or nearby stream
How A Father and Son Can Have a Great Relationship
Fatherhood is a unique feeling. It can be a struggle at times and it takes a lot of patience and understanding to raise your son well. It takes time to build that kind of bond with your son, but it’s worth the effort.
Becoming a good father is not always easy, especially when you have no idea how to do it. In order to raise your son well, you need patience and understanding from the start. You have to bond with him while still being an active part in his life so he knows he can depend on you for anything. You should also be there for him when he needs guidance or advice about something outside the scope of your expertise so he feels confident enough in himself to try new things on his own.
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
