Self-Care Day For Kids Needs To Be A Priority
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I think all parents can agree that our children deserve the best.
This isn’t in the realm of material things, it’s more about having the love that they need and a proper home. Good parenting and education as well.
One thing I have come to realize though is that kids deserve the best version of themselves as well. And I think that many of us, me included, fall short in one certain category.
We always talk about taking time for ourselves as adults. Whether it be by practicing good self-care or by carving out the appropriate time to do what we love and provide for our personal mental health.
But we don’t teach our kids to do the same. We don’t show it often enough by example, and we don’t actively teach them how to do it either.
Furthermore, if we do not teach them such critical things, we are looking at the next generation of ourselves.
Bad habits will continue to cycle if we don’t put an end to it.
If we truly want the best for our children, which we all do, we need to show them how to be at their very best. Amirite?
I had this revelation before when I saw an adorable Facebook post circling around. In it, this mom could see that her little one had had a rough day at school. So she gave her the spa treatment at home. A giant bubble bath, juice in a wine glass, favorite shows on the tablet, cucumbers on the eyes. It was the sweetest, most wholesome image.
Because that mom is right. We forget that children aren’t exempt from bad days. Our babies are resilient, but they don’t always have to be. A self-care day for them needs to be just as important as it is for us.
How often do you have an urge to come home, fling off your bra, get into your coziest sweats and hunker down for a night of snacks, Forensic Files, and Dateline?
Nobody? Just me?
Well, we all have our thing. But the point is, there are times in our lives where we just want to chill. We want to take time to pause and empty our mind of the day. To do this we want to find what makes us happy in that moment and to do so without restriction.
Or until we have to go to bed because….kids. And jobs.
So why can’t we make the effort to do this for our babies? Why don’t we think to provide the space for a self-care day for them as we do for us? We are the guides for their lives. They were given to us for a reason. We are responsible for helping them to learn lifelong habits that will set them up for success.
Self-care for them isn’t going to look the same as it does for us. For my daughter it is watching shows on Youtube Kids or doing art. For my son, it’s snuggling with mommy or watching hamsters go through mazes on TV.
Yeah, that’s weird. I know. It’s a new thing….
But it’s what makes them happy when they desperately want and need to be happy. And I need to respect that and allow it. Forcing my daughter to get off the tablet because she’s been on it long enough isn’t always necessary. Sometimes it’s more important to have that extra time. The mental health break that it provides is more beneficial right then. Obviously, there are plenty of other times where self-care isn’t front and center and moderation needs to come into play. It’s a balancing act. But we need to be cognizant of everything going on at any given time.
As parents, as their life guides, we need to try to do better for them. Not only do we need to make an effort to show by example, but we also need to allow them to put it into practice. A simple acknowledgment of them having a subpar day and asking them what would make it better goes a long way. It’s them seeing that we are invested in their wellbeing and helping them to connect the dots so as to know how they can take themselves into a better mental state.
Our children are our future, we see that everywhere we go. Let’s make their future the best that it can be, in all beneficial ways. Pencil in a self-care day for your mini’s when you are scheduling your own. It will go a long way!
