Raising kids during normal circumstances is a hard enough task, but doing it during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic makes it even harder. With economies everywhere in a volatile state and with millions of people losing their jobs in a snap, parents have so many things to worry about and face to support their children and keep their families afloat.
If you’re a parent who’s currently trying to think of ways to make life a bit easier to raise your kids well, there are some important things you must do. Here are six ways to raise your kids to become healthy and happy despite the raging pandemic:
Help them develop and maintain good hygiene.
It’s important to start teaching your kids early about the benefits of maintaining good personal hygiene. This includes disciplining them to regularly take a full bath, change their dirty clothes at once, and maintain great oral hygiene.
For example, you should frequently take them to a trusted children’s dentist not just for regular dental checkups but also for proper education on appropriate oral hygiene. You should then just make sure that your kids are actually doing what their dentist says, so they won’t go astray.
Don’t expect them to be perfect kids.
It’s okay to set some expectations for your kids and communicate the same with them; however, forcing your kids to meet those expectations at all costs would do more harm than good. When kids fail to achieve the bar that you’ve set for them, they’d most likely develop anxiety and question their personal capacity. Also, expecting your kids to always do things the way you expect them to do and then scolding them for behaving otherwise would be disastrous.
Keep in mind that your kids are prone to making mistakes and as such, should be allowed to make mistakes. Just be sure to always be there for them to make them understand what those mistakes could lead to and how they could avoid them next time a similar situation presents itself. Kids are not perfect, so don’t expect them to be.
Do physical activities with them.
Your kids need to stay active and maintain a strong body as much as you do; hence, you should find ways to do physical activities with them no matter how simple. It can be a small home improvement project, doing the dishes or laundry, daily stretching and low-intensity exercises and calisthenics, and many others.
The idea is to have some cardio and muscle-building workouts regularly through physical activities. Use your creativity to make these activities as fun for the kids as possible, so they’ll actually look forward to them.
Serve delicious and healthy meals and snacks.
Your kids should always have tasty and nutrition-filled snacks and meals each day. This is a non-negotiable requirement for your kids to have a strong body that would help protect them against coronavirus and other illnesses.
For snacks, you should serve yogurt, nuts, oatmeal, fruit smoothie, and energy balls, among others. When it comes to meals, you should serve lots of fish, veggies, and lean meat dishes. There are plenty of recipes online that you can try out, many of which are low-cost ones specially meant for pandemic purposes.
Do plenty of fun and productive bonding activities.
Kids naturally love lots of playtimes, so be sure to give them just that. You can treat each playtime as your regular bonding activities, so they’ll grow up feeling your love and attention for them.
Find ways to make your bonding activities as fun and productive as possible to make them worthwhile. You can try starting a home flower or vegetable garden, playing parlor games, watching kid-appropriate movies, and many others. There are plenty of possible excellent activities out there that you should try; just do some research and you’ll surely find ones that would be a hit with your kids.
Teach them about COVID-safe behaviors and protocols.
If you often leave home for work, it’s important to train your kids to observe COVID-safe behaviors and safety protocols, so they’ll stay safe from the illness. These include proper handwashing techniques, social distancing, and refraining from touching one’s face. To make it worth their while, give them honest praises or even some treats to make them happy.
COVID-19 may have made parenting much harder; however, it has also presented some unique opportunities to raise your kids to become happy and healthy in a crisis situation. With these simple tips, you can realize it much easier with some degree of effort and attention.
Meta title: Tricks in Raising Healthy and Happy Kids during the Pandemic
meta desc: Raising kids during normal times is hard enough, but the COVID-19 crisis makes it twice harder. Here are some ways on how you can raise your kids to become happy and healthy during this pandemic.
