How to Make Family Eating Habits Healthier
Posted by este in Home and Family, Nutrition on September 21, 2011
It is very important for everyone in your family to have good eating habits, since this will make you healthier and improve your lifestyle and longevity. Learning good eating habits as a family will help your kids develop a healthy relationship with food that they will keep for their whole lives.
Nowadays, there are so many unhealthy and popular foods available on the market. The fast food industry is more booming than ever, and with people getting busier and busier they give in to temptation and buy these foods. They are alright on occasion, but if eaten often they will deteriorate your health and add junk to your system.
One of the best ways to improve eating habits is to have family meals. During family meals, you can enjoy the food with company and it will help you talk to your kids about eating healthy foods. This will also help your child get used to eating a whole meal rather than just snacks, and it is also a great family bonding experience. Dinner and breakfast are good times for family meals, so try to set a time for the whole family to sit together and eat. Try new foods together, since children learn best from their parents and watching them eat healthy will influence them to do the same.
Home cooked meals are usually thought to be the tastiest and the healthiest. Cooking at home will help your child realize how food is important and how to make it at home. Home cooked meals made from scratch are better than meals from restaurants since they are natural and have less added fat and sugar. Made from scratch is usually healthier when the homemade alternative has fewer preservatives or unnecessary added starches. It is often more economical, too.
Children learn better if they are doing something as well as watching. Take your children with you when you go grocery shopping and show them what foods are good and what they should eat. Also, you can talk to them about junk foods with so many examples available in the grocery. Let them choose foods that they like to eat and if they are unhealthy, suggest healthy alternatives for them to try. When cooking at home, you can let your children do simple tasks to make them feel more appreciated and involved in making their food.
Avoid giving in to temptation by buying junk foods and instead fill your fridge with foods that are healthy. Buy lots of fruits and vegetables for your kids to snack on, as well as whole grain snacks. This way, if your children get hungry at home, they will eat healthy snacks instead of junk foods. Try to limit snacking so that children will have a good appetite to eat full meals at the table. If they must grab something to eat then having a dish of peeled and cut up fruits or raw vegetables available in the refrigerator will ensure they make the best choice for a snack.
If you have children who do not like eating healthy foods, then don’t despair. Continue to expose them to good food and let them see how nutritious they are. Don’t force them to eat the food though, if they don’t like it then give them something that they will eat but not something that is unhealthy. After showing a healthy dish to a child several times, they will start to accept it and eat it willingly.
Motivating Your Children to Help With Chores
Posted by este in Home and Family, Parenting on September 17, 2011
These days many modern families don’t have the luxury of a stay-at-home wife whose sole objective is to manage the household. With both parents working full time and kids involved in a plethora of extracurricular activities, chores can fall to the wayside all too easily. By creating a system and sticking to it, parents can help their children develop a sense of responsibility for the home. Follow the guidelines below to motivate your children to contribute to family chores.
1. Get organized
When faced with so many competing activities, finding time for chores can seem overwhelming. The first step in taming this problem is to create an organizational system that makes sense for your family. Sit down with your spouse and have an open conversation about how much time each partner can commit to housework each week. Having clear expectations for each other can help minimize potential conflicts in the future. Many households benefit from creating a large family calendar and hanging it in an easily accessible and visible place. Assign each family member a different colored marker and write down commitments to get a visual understanding of where everyone will be during the week. Having a quick family meeting at the beginning of each week will keep everyone on track and allow for adjustments as schedules change.
2. Lead by example
Help your children develop preventative skills like cleaning up the dishes while dinner is still cooking. By managing chores proactively in this way, you reduce the chances of feeling overwhelmed later on when tasks have piled up. When coming home from work, do you toss your coat on the couch and leave bags unpacked on the floor? Pay attention to your own behavior and how it might effect your children’s habits. Manage your own schedule carefully so that you don’t become frazzled or miss appointments because of a lack of organization. When children see their parents handle various tasks gracefully, they will be more motivated to take on their own challenges with confidence.
3. Make chores fun
Attach positive experiences to chores to encourage children. For example, your daughter may be more enthusiastic about taking out the garbage if she knows that afterward you can go to the park to play for half an hour. Washing dishes can be a lighthearted activity if you give your son a bubble beard and watch the water swirl down the drain. When creating your family calendar, choose another colored marker to designate special activities that your family can do together to reward yourselves for keeping up with obligations. If your state offers a cash return for recyclable bottles and cans, save up that money and put it towards a family pizza party at the end of the month as a fun outcome of taking care of the recycling. Choose one day each week to stay home and watch a movie or play games as a family. By creating a strong sense of unity through fun activities like these, parents encourage children to take ownership of the household and fulfill obligations without complaining.
7 Tips for How to Be More Neighbourly
Posted by este in Home and Family on September 13, 2011
All too often you hear people complain that we all live in a dis-jointed society where we live in our little bubbles and don’t know our neighbours. They hark back to ‘the good old days’ when a community truly was a community. Nowadays, we move around a lot more than maybe we once did, with families living in different cities, counties and even countries and a lot of people move into an area knowing no-one and feeling isolated. But moaning about it does not change anything, here are my suggestions as to how you can actually do something productive to change it and make your little corner of the earth a more pleasant and friendly place to live.
1. It sounds really obvious, but talk to your neighbours. Even if you don’t know their name you can still exchange pleasantries with the people whose faces you see every day. If you’re shy start with just smiling or waving and move on up to a ‘hello’ gradually. Other ways to contact include cooing over their baby, stroking their dog etc.
2. Give a spare key to a neighbour. It’s so handy to have someone who can help you out if you lock yourself out, who can water your plants/pets when you’re on holiday. Not only that but it’s a great act of faith to the neighbour and one they’ll probably be glad to reciprocate.
3. Walk the area. It’s too easy to take the same route all the time and not get to know what’s round your corner. I found that when I had my first child and was taking him out for walks in the pram that I discovered shortcuts, beautiful parks, nature spots as well as houses & shops.
4. Use your local shops. Small business’ really appreciate the trade, you’ll feel good about supporting the community and you’ll find yourself involved. You’ll get the gossip and find out what’s going on – not just through chatting but also seeing the posters. Which leads me nicely to…
5. Attend local school fetes, church fairs, events, coffee mornings, fundraisers etc. These things rely on local support and often provide a great day out for little or no cost. And by knowing you’re helping out you get a lovely warm feeling inside.
6. If you have time, volunteer! Local community groups, libraries, newsletters, schools, playgroups etc are normally crying out for extra pairs of hands and it’s a great way of making friends in your locality.
7. And finally, when you’ve done all this and settled in, made new friends and really feel part of the community be sure to go the extra mile to welcome new people to the neighbourhood when you see them moving in. Oh, and if you move out why not leave a “welcome to the neighbourhood” pack.
Admittedly some of this stuff may mean stepping out of your comfort zone, you may worry about being nosy or your intrusions being unwelcome, but in general people want to be friendly, it just takes the brave one to make the move. Once you start to make these little changes you’ll find you have a whole new set of friends, people you can turn to when you need to – for babysitters, to jump start your car, to take in parcels – and of course you can do the same for them!