Who knew that April was National Youth Sports Safety Month? I know I didn’t when I first started thinking about this month’s blog post. But when I learned that it was, it made me quickly think of how busy we can all get with our activities and our children’s activities, especially with Spring arriving as well!
Thankfully, Anna does not have too much going on right now, but we do try to hit up story time on Tuesdays and are thinking about introducing a Gymboree class or a swim class soon (so if you have any feed back on those, I would love to hear it!)
This brings me to what I want to talk about today, and that is, how to have a well-balanced child! I think that we can all agree that no matter what, we desire to raise the perfect child; one that is healthy, happy, loved and respected with high achievements and even higher goals. We also want our children to have the things/experiences that we were not able to have. Sometimes we become too focused on raising that perfect child that we forget about what may be best for them and we may hyper-parent, may over-schedule them or we may even become competitive parents ourselves. Let’s talk about each of those briefly.
Hyper-parenting is when a parent becomes overly involved with every detail of their child’s lives, from academics to athletics and even the social component of it. This can be dangerous when the child ages as they may not be able to make their own decisions.
With this, it can lead to over-scheduling your child in so many activities, including sports, clubs, music lessons, foreign language lessons, art lessons, necessary tutoring. All these things may be beneficial for your child, but we need to make sure that they are not overwhelmed by the amount of activities. We need to allow time for our kids to be bored, as boredom is a catalyst for creativity and can fuel a child’s imagination!
No matter the age of your child, we all want our child to be the best, better than the neighbor kid, better than their class mates. This is competitive parenting, there is nothing pretty about it, but I am guessing we can all admit we have thought these thoughts… But what does competitive parenting get us? Really, not much, our child is still going to walk when they learn, they are going to talk when they talk, learn to go potty on the toilet when they learn. And what does this lead us to, a grown up… we need to let our kids be kids. No need for them to grow up any faster than they already are…
So how do hyper-parenting, over-scheduling and competitive parenting affect our kiddos? Well, they may feel overwhelmed, they may feel like they are inadequate and that hey need to perform at such a high standard. So, what can we do about this? … Here are 5 simple steps to promote a balanced child:
FAMILY TIME- take a night off and hang out as a family. Maybe go to the park, have game night, or you could even plan a Family Staycation! Another great thing is to eat at least one meal a day together as a family!
KISS- KEEP IT SUPER SIMPLE! – Possibly limit your child to one activity outside of school, limit competitive teams at a young age (it really should be about fun!), or arrange the schedule so that one night a week, everyone is home so that you can have that Family Time!
THINK BEFORE “YES” – Don’t be too quick to say yes when asked to take on a new activity/responsibility, make sure you think of how it will affect the rest of the family and ask yourself what are the long-term effects of this commitment.
TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS- If it feels like it may be too much, it probably is! Talk to your child and make sure that it is an activity they want to get involved with and that they are not feeling overwhelmed!
MAINTAIN CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY- Chiropractic care reduces the effects of stress for the whole family! When a child is not balanced, they may have an increase in muscle tension resulting is subluxations forming. When your child is subluxated, they may start to have a lack in energy and focus, or possibly see some changes in their digestion or breathing patterns.
Please take these 5 steps and implement what works for your family. Each family is different and has different priorities and none of us is to judge how another family chooses to make family decisions. Remember that your kid is only a kid for so long, so enjoy the time and make time to let them be kids!
Also, keep your kids safe while playing sport! Make sure they are not over working a certain area of their body, that they are using proper gear correctly and that they are having fun! Enjoy the fresh air and Happy Spring!
Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this! You can reach me at DrLiz@InfiniteLifeChiro.com. Thanks!