I been researching lately on positive parenting and Stress-free kids. I implimented some tools that I learned from these techniques and it helps my children to be more happy, to say nicer things and to use technique to control their anger. Not that they were angry kids before, but it helps them cope better with tantrums and unhappiness.
Digging deeper into the subject, I realize that there are so many influences on what our children eat, hear and see on a daily basis that can make them unhealthy.
First what they eat. I thought my children ate well until I heard about the pesticides in fruits and Veggies, and the dyes (especially the yellow and blue dyes), the artificial coloring, sugar, and on on in foods...I try to buy organic veggies/fruit (when on sale), buy from a local farmer's market or grow our own garden. I also soak and wash all fruit and veggies. We have chickens so we get fresh eggs everyday ;-) Also, I have been pushing more water in their diet to flush out their systems (with all the toxins in our world they need something). I feel in our society that we easily get caught up in fast foods, sugary items and forget what is good for us. We need to scale back (on these sugar foods, dyes and toxins) for the health of our children.
Next, the things that our children hear on the TV, radio, at school or out in public is devasting to say the least. My youngest, being the smart kid that he is, picked up some choose words that we do not say in theis house, but felt the need to share at his school!! So some things I have control over and others I don't. So as for TV and radio, we are limited the amount the kids watch or hear. We go outside alot or play book CDs, do puzzles (Brett has a great brain teaser puzzle called "Traffic Jam"), take care of all our pets (chickens, also collecting eggs, lizards, snakes, dogs, etc.).
Finally, the things children see sometimes can be scary too. If we see inappropriate behavior I use it as a teaching tool to show what is appropriate and was is not. Also, always make your child feel that they are safe with you not matter what is happening.
I only scratch the surface of everything we should do for our children. We live in different world than when we grew up in and with that we have to make different changes to make them healthy.
PS. Don't forget to be a kid with your children. They will love you for it!!
