When you have a child, your world changes forever. No longer is your life just about you, it’s about this little person you’ve created and we all set out to do what’s best for them. However, there are many challenges along the way, and raising children isn’t smooth sailing. There are lots of frustrations that we as parents have to deal with every day to ensure our children are safe happy and healthy. Here are just a few of them, and what you can do to try and resolve them.
Children refusing to eat healthy food
Getting the right nutrition is absolutely vital to a growing child. They need the right balance of calories, vitamins, and minerals for their bodies to thrive, develop correctly and to give them the energy that they need. However, getting the good stuff into children is often a challenge and most kids will be picky to some extent, at one time or another. For this reason, as a parent, it’s worth having a few tricks up your sleeve. If your child refuses to eat fruit, blend up a smoothie with some fresh berries, banana, a little fruit juice and maybe some yogurt. Most kids will sip on a sweet drink like this, another option would be to freeze it into lolly molds and make ice pops. If they refuse to eat their vegetables, try dicing them very small in a food processor and mixing with ground meat. This can then be used as a base for all kinds of dishes such as lasagna and spaghetti bolognese and is full of goodness without them knowing. Another trick is to get them involved in the cooking process, research has shown that getting them involved makes kids more open to trying what it is they’ve helped to make.
Children that refuse to do chores
No one likes doing chores, they’re dull and boring and there are a million things we’d all rather be doing. However, kids having chores is important. It helps to teach them responsibility and shows that sometimes you do have to do things that you don’t want to. Make the process easier by offering kids incentives, for example making their bed, loading the dishwasher or vacuuming a room lets them earn their pocket money or some tv/ internet/ toy time. Toys like LEGO Ways are lots of fun for kids so it’s plenty of motivation for them to get things done. Doing chores in return for something they like is useful for teaching work ethic.
Children that dislike exercise
Kids are naturally full of energy, guidelines suggest they need an hour of moderate to vigorous activity every day to keep them healthy. However, when we live in a sedentary world, unfortunately, kids can get lazy and some can even get to the point where they hate physical activity. If this is the case, make it fun for them. Take them to a trampoline park or hire a bouncy castle. Go on bike rides, have a water fight, take them to a park to run around. This will help them build up their fitness and see that exercise can be fun.