Parenting Archive

My thoughts on parenthood, and what it's like to be a mom in the Philippines.

Fun Parenting Tips On Early Healthy Habits

We cut down on our groceries and the first one to go was the biscuits, specially those with sweet fillings. Now, I have nothing against biscuits, but I would prefer a healthier snacks for my kids. I realized that whatever I give to them will affect their health not only today but as well as in the future.

And with that in mind, I realized, I am responsible in ensuring that my child will be healthy and will live a healthy lifestyle. I am sharing with you some of the things that we’re trying to adopt in the house and how we are doing it to build healthy habits and in the end develop a healthy lifestyle for the kids.

Eating the right food. Give your kids healthy food, introduce them to vegetables and as much as possible stay away from foods that is not healthy.

How to make it fun: include them in the grocery shopping, let them put the food in the basket. Also let them choose what they want and explaining to them why you will buy it and why you will not. Include them in the preparation of the food, for younger kids, let them do the washing, if you can trust your kid with a knife, let him do the cutting. It is also fun to take a peak of what’s cooking. I do that sometimes specially to my little girl who’s very curios of what’s happening on the kitchen. She loves helping mommy cook!

Let’s get physical! It is very important that you teach your kids the importance of exercising. Introduce them to physical activities, to making muscles be stronger and to activities that will make them move.

How to make it fun: Join Fun Runs together or play basketball with your kid. I do that, once every month. Or you can go to the park and play tag! My kids, they love running with me, so when time permits, we’d go to Rain Forest and run and have breakfast there. It doubles as a healthy activity and as well as bonding activity.

Supply your kid with supplements. While you make it a point to give them healthy food, supplements are still needed. Give them supplements to make sure they get all the nutrients and vitamins requirement they need.

How to make it fun: my kids.. there are times that the do not like taking supplements.. so what I do is alternate their supplements from time to time (will publish an article on how to choose the right supplement for your kid soon) and as much as possible, I make drinking time a super fun time. Take my 3rd and 4th babies, they do not like taking supplements, so what I did is label the supplements according to their favorite activity. There’s a supplement to improve their running and there’s one for jumping higher! And with that, they would drink it with much enthusiasm! and will show how much they improve on running on jumping.

Take a bath daily and of course brush teeth every after meal. A good hygiene is a part of being healthy so you really have to take time instilling to your kid how important good hygiene is. Develop a routine so they would not forget brushing their teeth and taking a bath. Of course good hygiene is not just about bathing and brushing the teeth. Trim their nails regularly, comb their hair, have their hair cut and so on. This activity will teach your kid that these are needed to be done on their body and in the long run they will develop the attitude of making sure they are clean and neat.

How to make it more fun: when taking a bath, I always make it a point that I am in not hurrying mood. We take our time as I bathe them. I sing to them, I play with them and make them feel special through bathing. I always made sure that bathing is fun. Same goes with brushing,we sing and count while brushing and always end it with a kiss from my mommy!

All of these, of course will never be effective if you will not lead by example. Our kids look after us and they love imitation what they do. Instilling a healthy lifestyle with them will be easy if they see you as a good example.

Travel Plans For 2012

It has been years since we last travel. Travel to us means going to our favorite beach destination. The last time we did was in 2009, then I became pregnant with the little girl. So many things happened after that and long travel was not on our priority list. Occasionally, we would have short trips, to Tagaytay most of the times but never as far as La Union or even Nueva Ecija.

2009 La Union

This year, I think we will be including travel in our to do list. I have read great review of hotels in Majorca I don’t think we can go there this year. We are going to take it one slow step at a time. Maybe one travel this year that includes plain ride (thank goodness for seat sales, I was able to book a very cheap flight) and 2 or more road travel, long road travel.

Of course Magaluf hotel reviews from Majorcan holidays .co.uk was bookmarked for future reference. I want my kids to experiencing travelling out of the country and discovering great places all over the world. But before we can do that, we have to discover first the beautiful places in our country.

The bully, the mean and your kid: Teach Your Kid Not To Be Bully

We have been playing this song for a month already.. 3-4 times a day and sometimes more.. depending on their mood. At first it was just a random song that my ear appreciates. I never bother myself with the lyrics, not until my boys started singing it.

And when I finally bother myself with the lyrics, I am so in love with it and the message.. in fact whenever I feel the need to be bitch.. with the Mcdo cashier, with the department store crew, with the waiter.. with a stupid moron, this song echoes in my head.. and keeps me away from being mean (although not all the time..but yeah at least most of the time haha) The kids of course have no idea what the song was all about..they just love the song.. and the video too.

Today, having nothing to write about.. and while Mean (or someday to my toddlers) is playing on the other half of my screen, I thought: hey, why not blog about Mean?

As it is with every parent, I do not want my kids to be bullied.. and with that, I also do not want them to be bullies.. How hard it is to teach our kids not to be bullies? Most of us are concerned with the kids and the bullies that sometimes, we forget our kids can be a bully too. So how can we prevent it?

Before, I would say to my kids that whenever someone hits them, they should hit back.. fight back.. I realized it’s not how to handle it.. that in the end, it’s turning my kids into bullies. Hearing Mean over and over again made me realize that the best way to handle meanies and bullies is to learn the art of dedma or learn the art of nonchalance. Never mind the bullies.

Now with my kids.. I always tell them to respect others, to be conscious of how they treat others. To be always grateful and show gratitude. And not to laugh at others.. and to be always helpful. And I always tell them that whatever it is that they do not want being done to them, don’t do it to the people around them. The Golden Rule, we must not forget.