When last did you stop to look into the eyes of your nearest and dearest and tell them how much they mean to you? Or put your arms around them and tell them that you love them? Just because.
Not because they were hurt or crying out for your attention. But just because you had so much love welling up inside you for them that you simply had to express it.
In an ideal world, every family would be happy, every child and spouse would know every minute of the day that they are loved and we’d all have perfect health, in body, mind and soul. There would be no more bickering, insults, petty arguments, one-up-manship and keeping record of wrongs. Respect would be at an all-time high. Kindness and Appreciation would be a natural part of our everyday life. We’d feel emotionally secure.
And as a result we’d have no violent crime in our communities. Women and children would no longer be hurt or abused. Peace would descend upon our world.
Yes… it all starts with good old fashioned family values. It starts in the home.
It starts with us as a family.
It starts with you as a parent.
It starts now.
I learnt so much from the contributed post below. ENJOY…
15 Amazing Things To Do For Your Family
What sort of a parent wouldn’t want the best for their family? Not only their kids but their spouse too.
All parents are doing their best the only way they know how, including you.
However, you should take a look at the following 15 things to see if there’s something else you can do for your family.
The things you do while your children are young shapes them into the people they become as teenagers and then as adults. It really does matter. Kids brains are like sponges. They soak up information more readily than adults.
The way you make them feel will also affect how they act as they grow up.
Here are 15 amazing things you can do that will ensure you’re helping your family grow into a healthy, happy unit, that eventually starts their own healthy, happy family.
Read on to learn more!
1. Spend Quality Time Daily
Each day, set some time aside to spend with your family. This should be quality time. That means
- no TV
- no gadgets, or anything else that can get in the way.
Quality time actually means:
- talking to one another, talking about your feelings, about your day, about your thoughts and dreams, etc.
- It means having fun together.
If you’re always busy and you think that watching TV together occasionally is quality time, you are mistaken.
2. Get Them Into Good Habits
One of the greatest things you can do for your kids while they’re young is get them into good habits.
- Get them making their bed in the mornings as soon as they are old enough.
- Get them tidying up after themselves
- and eventually chipping in with the chores.
Other kids might be waited on hand and foot by their parents, but this is bad for them in the long run. You want your kids to grow into able adults that can tidy up after themselves and keep a house running, so you need to get them involved.
3. Choose The Right Family Car
The right family car will be perfect whether you’re going on a road trip or just taking your daughter to dance practice.
Check out sites like West County Volvo Cars to see if anything catches your eye. You should take the car for a test drive and ensure that you have made a list of ‘musts’ so that your car has absolutely everything you need.
- Does it have trunk space?
- Does it have a fantastic safety rating?
- Can you afford the insurance and the fuel?
Make sure you research all of these things before making your final decision on a family car.
4. Set A Great Example
Make sure that in everything you do, you set a great example for your kids. They will copy you, whether you like it or not. Even if you tell them not to, they’re going to.
- If you smoke, they’ll probably try it.
- If you sit around all day eating junk food, they’ll do it.
- If you’re a negative, anxious person, they’ll more than likely become like you.
Make sure that you consider whether you’d want your kids doing what you’re doing whatever you do, whether it’s complaining or smoking.
5. Eat Dinner Together
Eating dinner together will contribute to that important quality time. Studies have shown that eating dinner together is important for a number of reasons.
Not only does it encourage healthy eating habits and bring a family closer together, kids who eat dinner with their families do better at school. They’re less likely to get into trouble and rebel.
If you want to ensure your kids are well behaved, it could just be a case of sitting down to eat a meal together every day. If you can’t do dinner, it could even be breakfast.
6. Forge A Love Of Reading
Reading can help kids to become better at listening, speaking, and communicating in general. It can also help them to forge a love of books and the English language.
They may even develop their own imaginations and want to write their own stories and books. You could read to them for a little while before bed.
Get them to read to you when they’re old enough, too. You could take it in turns.
Sometimes, it could even be nice to sit in the same room and read separate books rather than watch the TV!
7. Communicate Properly
Communicating properly in front of your kids teaches them to communicate properly.
This means
- not shouting
- resolving issues in a fair manner and
- not being passive aggressive towards your partner or your kids.
You need to be able to
- talk things through
- explain what you mean and
- try not to get too emotional about things.
If you shout all the time, your kids will shout all the time. If you give them or your partner the cold shoulder, they’ll learn to do that too. This isn’t healthy for them.
Ideally, you should never argue with your partner in front of them.
If you have a disagreement, save it for when you’re alone. Don’t disagree in front of the kids – they might learn to go to one of you when they want something. This could mean them attempting to play you off against the other. You need to put on a united front even if you don’t agree about something.
8. Plan Adventures
Family adventures while your kids are young help to bring you closer together. You’ll feel a stronger bond and make memories that last a lifetime.
On these adventures, you can teach your kids about the world, including animals they wouldn’t see where you live, different cultures, different foods, and more.
This helps to turn them into well-rounded adults, accepting and non-judgemental.
9. Allow Them To Express Themselves
Allowing your kids to express themselves freely is important.
If they’re painting a picture and they paint the Sky a bright shade of green and the grass blue, don’t say anything. Accept that they are using their imaginations. They see things differently to us.
Don’t always give them ideas on what to do either, or they may rely on you when they can’t think of anything to do, for example, when siblings aren’t home. You want them to be able to think for themselves and come up with creative ideas for play.
See how much you can let them express themselves when it comes to their outfits too. Perhaps you could give them options if you can’t bear to let them choose their own clothes from scratch.
When it comes to emotions, allow them to express them freely too. Make sure you don’t tell them that they’re being silly or invalidate their emotions. Listen to them, and help to ease their worries. Avoid phrases like ‘Big boys/girls don’t cry’ at all costs. You don’t want them to grow up feeling ashamed of their feelings, struggling to express them.
10. Try Not To Tell Them Who They Should Be or What They Should Do
It’s important to realize that most of what we believe to be right isn’t necessarily right. For example, ‘boys shouldn’t wear dresses.’ If your son wants to wear a dress because he wants to be like his mother one day, then an army man the next, let him.
He’s experimenting, and he’s more likely to grow up feeling comfortable in his body and with his sexuality than somebody who is told it’s wrong to wear dresses – all because society said so. It’s nothing but a piece of material!
11. Teach Them To Make Decisions
Help teach your kids to make decisions, whether that’s their clothes for the day or what they want for dinner. Life is full of choices, so teaching them to get comfortable with potentially making the ‘wrong’ decision is important.
12. Allow Them To Try Different Hobbies
All kids need a great hobby. It teaches them skills and they build confidence. Allow them to try different things and see what they really love to do. Try not to influence them. It’s normal to want them to love what you love, but that doesn’t mean that they will.
13. Get Active Together
Getting active together is another fantastic bonding activity, and gets your kids into exercise while they’re young. Get them used to moving their bodies so they know early on how great exercise makes them feel. This will help to keep you fit, too!
14. Teach Them To Eat A Healthy, Balanced Diet
You want your kids to eat healthy, but that doesn’t mean being extreme.
Teach them balance and moderation. Make sure they know how to listen to their natural hunger cues. Let them stop eating when they’re full.
Don’t give them food when they’re bored, or let them snack mindlessly in front of the TV (unless it’s vegetables).
15. Teach Them To Be Grateful And Loving
At the end of every day, get your kids to list 5 things they are grateful for. This is a great habit to get into and can help your kids to see the best in every situation.
Wow… when I received this post and started reading each piece of advice, I just kept thinking… Wow, wow, wow… amazing tips here for every parent and every family. I feel like I want to create a 1-page document of this and paste it up on our fridge. So as soon as I get a moment I’ll be adding an infographic to this post with these incredible points.
How are you doing on the Happy Family scale? How many of these things do you have in place in your daily life?
