Health benefits of dates for kids

Do you give dates for good health to your kids?

These days dates are very common, cheaply available dry fruits. Dates are quite convenient and can be stored easily as they are nuts, these can be easily cut, diced, chipped, grated on any of the sweet dish you prepare. 

Since last few days climate in Bangalore is highly unpredictable and a little chilly. I am depending heavily on warm food to keep everyone in family healthy. One of my favorite ingredients is dates (though it comes after my first favorite things like ginger, black pepper…etc…etc). But dates are more important as they are good for kids and taste yummy. So I use it in lot of dishes with oats, in cake or for garnishing any sweet dish (laddoo or barfi). I prefer it most in spicy raisins & dates chutney. It is spicy and tangy, and just heavenly. One of these days I will post a recipe for same too.  

But for now do read on to know few of many benefits of giving dates to you child:

• Dates are rich source of protein, fiber and rich in many Vitamins namely A, B and C
• Dates are packed with lot of energy as they contain sugar
• Dates ease constipation. 
• Dates have Iron, magnesium and calcium and are useful in treating anemia.
• With all the vitamins and minerals dates help in fighting immunity
• It is warm food and so is ideal for wholesome snack in winters

when giving dates to kids few things to be taken care of are:

-Ensure to always buy properly packed and processed dates

-Wash, wash and wash, these must always be washed before consuming

-Check to eliminate all seeds when giving to kids. Though you get seedless dates also but it is best to check them as well to be very sure for kids.

Building immunity is best way of keeping safe and healthy in changing climate

#health
#building immunity

                                              - Spell and Charm 

How to Make Toddler ready for Kindergarten

I Love School

As the little ones grow and look at world with wonder in their eyes. The responsibility of teaching kids worldly manners, compassion and much more rests on shoulder of parents. A toddler of 2 to 2.5 year is most ready for a play school. Initially he may make some fuss but you can be assured kids love making friends and enjoy different activities they learn. Every new activity learned for them gives a sense of accomplishment and builds their confidence for kindergarten. The love for school and learning is laid down in kids mind is early years so kindergarten holds are special place.  

 For kids at toddler stage more that education and books, it is important to learn about things around them, become imaginative and social. 

If you don’t want to send toddler to play school, here are few things which you can teach to your toddler so as to be ready for kindergarten:

• Teach the child about self, family, home.

• Teach kid to self-care. Potty training, washing hands, self feeding etc

• Read interesting story book to your kid with expression – These may be fairy tales or animal books.

• Do activities for motor skills, like spooning activity, building blocks etc

• Make a routine for child morning chores time, prayer time, breakfast time,  playing time, story time, snack time etc

• Once in a while show them a fun children movie pair it with a book

• Encourage socializing – Take kid out to play with kids his age in park, Plan kids outings, make kid familiar with outside world

• Make a kids space that is organised, colorful and full of creativity

• Teach kids sharing

• Get few Play school books and play with kid matching games, sorting games, counting games, and board games. These help kids develop their mental skills and learn math easily at later stage

• Teach alphabet, numbers through activity books, songs and other fun methods

• Teach colors and shapes

• Teach body parts, days in the week, months

• maintain a progress report to know weak areas

Mostly teach them expression, communication, self-care and being social. Little bit of learning and bit of art and craft should suffice. These early years are theirs to the enjoy the play time time as well as to have fun while learning.

                                                                               - Spell and Charm

How to Motivate Child and Improve Focus when learning

How to Motivate Child ?How to Improve focus ?  Class and Self-study sessions

Every child is different and so is the way they learn. Education is a process which involves a lot of different activities like listening, communicating, practicing, organizing and involving one’s self at lot of levels. For us it may look easy but for a child it is complex lengthy process which is no fun. Keeping kid motivated is the key here. Here are few tips to keep the child motivated and focused in class and in self-study sessions :

• Start with setting some basic rules- Instill in child a habit of independence. Let them finish their home-work and activities themselves. Start this in small steps. Make routine for kid’s to follow including learning and play time. Everyday studying routine at same time keep kids disciplined. Ensure to provide kids with a clock so they are not worried about time .Ensure the study room is a quiet place with good amount of sunlight and positive vibes. Avoid doing multitasking in-front of kids. If possible try not to use TV, or internet yourself or by anybody when kids are studying.
•   Inculcate in kids habit of listening – Keeping kids focused in classroom is not easy. Especially when classes are over 20 minutes and more theoretical than activity based. There are many ways to help children with communications. Learning music and many activities/games based on are helpful with this. Children who listen carefully are able to focus and pay attention in class. 
• Teach self-learning - Motivate kids to learn time management and encourage self-learning. Make kids understand virtue of minimal monitoring. To start with make a time table for kids every day learning with input from kids. Ensure that all subjects are covered. Motivate kid to study the subjects they don’t like can be made easy and interesting when learning with fun.
•  Small Sessions – Time kids sessions with break in every 20 minutes. Children tend to develop boredom very easily and their mind drifts over. To avoid this, It is best to keep the study time short, with some time gap in between two sessions. Short break can be used small juice and snack break.
•    Play time – Ensure to give kids mind time out. When their minds do not play any games or watch TV. They can play in park or go cycling, swimming, anything which helps them relax. Encourage spending time outdoors as it help relax and soothe mind
•   Help your child become aware of the things that distract her. With time and practice, she’ll get to know what being distracted feels like, and will recognize when her attention is drifting.
• Encourage group study once in a week- It may not be convenient initially but it really helps develop focus. Enroll your kid in a library or a book reading club of their choice. 
• Encourage creativity in learning – very kid has their own way of understanding and learning. Encourage kid to find what is best suited to them. As they get more creative with their learning and sharing, Involvement of parents and encouragement plays an important role

Also read my post of extra activities that help kids improve mind concentration here and improve concentration with Brain food here

As we lead a hectic life juggling with home, work and responsibilities, we must take out time to tell kids about lot of patience, hard work, organizing, and planning goes in the doing things. Focus and healthy mind goes hand in hand. Developing focus, motivations and interest is a slow process but patience and perseverance pays.



                Empathize and believe!

-           Spell and Charm 

Are you an over indulgent parent?

Parenting - Raising kids the old way

Parenting is tougher today for parents around the world as kids get more demanding and expectations are high on all ends. Being a parent and living in city,  I felt a gap between how we were brought up and how we are parenting today.

Parents today are overindulgent due to various factors like rise of women, nuclear families, guilt of working mothers, affordability, consumerism etc.As parents we don’t mean to spoil our kids but lot of times out of love we overpraise, overprotect and overindulge

Are you an over indulgent parent?

Parents from any class in society want to provide their kids with anything and everything. But little do they know that showering them with abundance more than children need or can handle has negative effects. Below we will discuss on this kind of over parenting. What is Overindulgence? Where do we draw line between parents love and overindulgence?

Lot of times we ask ourselves how much is enough, enough of canned juice for kids, enough of chocolates, enough of TV etc…How much is enough? What to give and where to put limit? Parents understanding on these trivial matters go a long way in deciding how they raise their kids

Overindulgence is giving to kid more than he needs or he asks. It is one of the dangerous forms of spoiling. How do we know we are doing it?

•  Time out for kids – when parents are over involved with kids. That is when kid gets all the attention of family at all times. When they are handed toys even before asking, over fed even before hungry and treated super special. When they are over attended to by parents or nanny and rarely spend alone time and time playing with kids of their age. Being Attention holders, never scolded, never disciplined and over-loved are too overindulged

• Demands and tantrums: Kids are great observers and learners. Kids at toddler stage are known to throw tantrums and make demands. How do you deal with these tantrums and how fulfill the demands defines great deal on raising kids. If you agree to all demands kids make and every tantrum they throw without much thought, the toddler will continue to grow with his tantrums. Exposure to media and high demand of kids need to be tackled very carefully.

• Care and protection:  Sometimes parents out of care and love do not let kids do thing they can do for themselves. Often parents get used to taking care of kids and forget to teach them to take care of themselves. Small self-care tasks like self-feeding, self-grooming, making their bags ready, cleaning their rooms etc. must be taught to kids. When parents do too much for their children, kids get used to not doing anything on their own. Such kids often face difficulty in adult jobs and taking care of self later in the life

• Over praising – Often parents over-praise their kids to boost their confidence and sometimes to just keep them happy. Lavish praise makes kid over confident, unrealistic and leads them to believe that they are more special than other kids. Over praising kids every now and then may make them arrogant, too much in love with themselves and so as to say narcissistic.

 Parents should try and be conservative with praises. Rather than agreeing with everything kids say, give it a thought and opine what you think is right. No Parent would want to hurt kids feeling but sometimes thats what you have to do. Or else children grow up with lack of independence and fear of taking responsibility. It is important that kids don’t grow to be self-centered , be realistic and know that life is tough and be prepared for it. It’s is best to be honest with kids and let them find their own potential and drives.

As they say success does not come the easy way!

Also read my post on raising Responsible kids

                                                         - Spell and Charm

Best 5 Online Websites to Buy Affordable Kids’ Products

As parents we always indulge with our kids and wish to buy best for them. Along with aesthetics, we also look for good quality and affordable price. It is a fact that kids’ products are quite expensive. Be it the infant utilities, dress, toys, footwear, fashion accessories….the list goes on. So, parents today must make sure that they buy products at reasonable rates as their usability is for short period of time. In a recent development Target has announced that they will no longer do gender distinctions on colors for kids’ products, So now mommies can choose blue for their lovely princess and pink for their handsome boys.

As festival season is round the corner, parents must have already started planning on the spending for clothes, gifts, and other related expenses. This article will help parents as it throw light on 5 best online websites to buy affordable kids’ products. Check out my picks for best sites for kids shopping :

FirstCry

FirstCry is never a new store to anyone who is a frequent online shopper. In fact, most of the parents who purchase products for their kids online prefer FirstCry at prima facie. It is because the trust they have on the store. FirstCry sells quality kids’ products from top notch brands. You can find all the needed articles for your kids that can pamper them, make them enjoy and even comfortable.

Shopping is in fact easier at this store for they have personalised search. Give the details of your baby including gender and age and you get the best choices without any hassle. They even have maternity products for expecting mommies and also you can even buy gifts for newborns from FirstCry. The site is very convenient for a hassle free shopping? You can Sit, relax and enjoy your kids’ shopping for the upcoming festival season with a few clicks.

FlintoBox

FlintoBox is a website that caters DIY activities. It’s a nice concept which really caught my eye. It helps the mental, logical, reasoning skills of your kids’, making them explore new things, build in creative thinking and lots more. It is defined to kids’ that are aged between 3-7 years. These are educational and learning toys which help children develop creativity, Imagination and self-learning.

Do read my other post on how to Encourage Imagination

 FlintoBox has a theme for each month and it has DIY activities, these are based on child’s age. These can catch your child’s interest quickly, making him/her more active and Learning Fun 

and fun-filled. These boxes can be subscribed monthly. Give your child the pleasure to explore these boxes monthly and you will realize this was your best gift ever to them!...I found this site very useful for busy parents .Do checkout.

Hopscotch

Hopscotch is rather a one stop destination for all kids’ related products. You get to see as much international collections on outfits for both boys and girls, accessories, footwear, boutique collections which you can pre-order and save, at a very affordable price.

Especially I was really amazed to see so many pretty frocks and cool jackets showcased at the website. There are many boutique products as well which might interest you. The best part of this store is that you get to find something new each day at this store. Hopscotch does not solely sell kids products but they also have products for maternity, home and kitchen, accessories, toys, books, stationeries, food and feeding, personal care, party supplies and gifts and lots more.

FashionAndYou

FashionAndYou is another incredible store for online shopping indeed! I have made quite a few purchases but had not bothered to peep into their kids category till this topic popped out. This is one such online store which gives you amazing discounts every day on all categories. They have showcased quite unique collections even for the branded products which makes them a preferable store.

You can buy apparel, footwear and accessories from FashionAndYou. And you can also get collections with respect to branded stores.

Amazon

Amazon has fast become one of the most trusted online stores for any online purchase. They give you the best product at the most affordable rate. Amazon Juniors is mind blowing with so many trendy collections. And when it comes to the quality and the price, it is very competitive. Do checkout there Kids books section as well.

In apparel you will find amazing collection of Comic Character T-shirts including chhota bheem, motu patlu, angry birds, ninja hattori etc. Here you can buy your kids favorite comic characters at a very affordable price

These are my choices of 5 best online stores for affordable kids products. It is difficult to include many in this small list, if any store is missed, you can list them at the comment box below the article. Your feedback is welcome.

                                                                - Spell and Charm

What we can learn from Kids

What we can learn from Kids 

#Be Like a Child

There are many ways in which children make our life lively and full of love. Their love and bringing them up makes us learn many new things. There are few natural character traits which we must learn from kids. Many a times to find solution to our problems we need to look at things from child’s perspective. Being like a child will give us a positive outlook and we can get more out of life. Few things we can learn from kids are mentioned herein:



Curiosity

It is quite amazing how child observe, learn and expand their world. The curiosity a child has and that hunger to know is something we need to learn. As we grow we became more passive towards knowledge and learning. Asking of questions what, how and why just get lost from our dictionary and as adults we often become arrogant “we know it all “kinds


Love all

Kids have a natural tendency to love everyone they meet. They can smile and talk to everyone. They know to love without expecting anything in return. They easily love, easily forget, easily forgive and never hold any qualms about the past. Living free from past is a life we all hope for having a helps us do that

Fearless and Enthusiasm

Our fears hold us back from doing many things in life. Fear of life, expectations, social status and many more invisible fears makes man to lead a shallow life. A life in which we don’t enjoy roller coaster ride, a walk with a friend, a fatty ice-cream etc. Barring few most of our fear is unnecessary and makes us skeptical. Being enthusiastic and fearless like a child helps us lead a life the way we want. If we can make life fun with wonder and excitement like a child many of our problems will be solved

Imagination

Children by birth are Imaginative. The child has lots of creative thoughts and ideas, and they express them though play, relationships, situation handling. We as adults become typical and often conservative in applying any imagination to a situation. Every child does an activity in his own way by applying their imagination. Kids love being unique while adults don’t. And so unlike a child most of us are predictable in most situations

Being Self

Kids love to do things on their own in their own way and by their own hands. They believe in self and like being self-reliant. Lot of adults lose their confidence for not being able to make it in studies or sports or somebody expectations. We should learn from kids who believe that they can be anybody and do anything

Forgive

Kids are really good with relations. One moment they fight, next they make up. They forget and forgive in no time. Whereas most adult tend to hold on to past with both hands and not enjoy the present. Or few just worry about future yet to come. In either case our present is not important to us. We should learn from kids how to let go and live in present

Free time and Play

A kids mind is always in play .A child sees play in everything from helping mom ,to gardening, reading book or any other work. Considering everyday as child play is great way of keeping stress at bay.

Also consider the importance of physical activity, play time and free time for adults in same way as for kids. As adults we get so busy in managing work and life that a relevance of free time and play hardly seem relevant.  


“To stimulate creativity, one must develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.”  - Albert Einstein

Belief in one’s self and a little creativity like a child can help us solve many problems we face at work or in relationships. Keeping an open mind and learning to forgive will help us lead lively, fun and stress-free life. 

                                                                      - Spell and Charm 

How to deal with Constipation in Children

Tummy problems - Constipation

Constipation is very common among infants and toddlers. Below are few tips which will help make digestive system healthy and ease the situation 

Water
Help kids with fluids. Kids by themselves do not understand need of drinking. So It is important to get them in habit of drinking water after all meals and snacks.  Also add to diet fruit juice, soup and other water-based light cereals

Fibre
Making sure you diet contains balanced amount of fibre. Fibre is there in most of the fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, seeds, oats. For children who have just started solid food must be kept low on fibre. For toddlers fibre intake must be increased gradually. 

Toilet training
From the beginning try and set this as a regular routine. Everyday follow same time and give enough time to kids to go to toilet. This will help kids get in routine 

Balancing the Carb
Carbohydrates with more starch should be avoided. Parents have to make a healthy choice on what carbs to eat and how much 

Eating routine and small meals
Food routine must be made and followed at same time every day. Meal time should not be skipped. Setting a time schedule for eating and playing will helps kids with this   

Avoid fatty and spicy food
Kids get tummy problems very easily as their digestive system is still developing. So avoid hot food, chilly and spice are not good for kids developing stomach 

Introduce yogurt
Most kids love it as it comes in variety of flavors. Other than calcium and protein it contains probiotic which help with digestive health 

Exercise
Lack of physical activity affects digestion. Ensure kid has exercise/play out session every day to ensure good stomach 

Keep a tab of food
Other than foods that we know cause constipation like meat, cheese, fried food and dairy products. Try and keep a track of food that seem to cause constipation. Avoid this food and see if it helps.

Stress management  - teach kids how to manage stress. Stress is related to our stomachs, same is for kids. Help them manage stress  


     Even if you have to eat out try and opt for healthy options like a brown bread veggie sandwich rather than cheese/meat sandwich. Try and minimize constipation in initial years as kids grow and they get in habits of keeping stomach healthy. Hope this post helps all mummies take care of little tummies!

                                                                           - Spell and Charm 

How to Make Kids love healthy food

How to Make Kids love healthy food

Making eating healthy food a loving experience for child is endeavor of every parent. Like all other habits foundation of food habits is laid early in life. Kids tend to follow food habits, tastes and likes of parents quite often. By taking the charge in your hands you can shape your kids food habits to be healthy one through life. Here is how to start?

• Talk about healthy food with excitement – Talk about uniqueness of the food you have made. It can be eggs, carrots, green leafs, potatoes, fish. Talk about variety and how it can made to taste different and has different names

• Engage kids in making process - Start involving kids in food making and getting the table ready. Let them understand the ingredients, taste, color etc. Toddlers love the fact that salt and sugar are both white but taste so different.  Take kids for shopping trips to the grocery store, fruit market to keep them involved.

• Table Habits -It is healthy and a good family time if you eat dinner at dining table. Kids seen and learn about sharing the food as well

• Parents are role model – when kids arrive we model our lives around kids so why not eating habits. What kids see is what they follow. Help yourself with good healthy food habits and kids will follow. This includes minimizing eating out, ready to eat meals, packaged food and preferring more of fresh foods. 

•     Books, games and fun – Take kids for fun outing to a farmhouse ,get story books about food especially the ones regarding are favorite fruit and vegetables are common ones. Color of food and shape of food are also popular ones.

•     Breakfast – After the hours of no food at night  before getting to school kids need energy filled breakfast. Ensure the breakfast is balanced and wholesome, must have protein, some healthy fats, carb and vitamins and minerals.      

•     Try new foods – Try new Vegetables and fruits. Eating the same food may not keep kids excited. Try new recipes, a new look can make kids really love food.  Give a little touch of sauce, jam, jelly or yoghurt dressing to make if kids like it    

•     Make kids love nature – watch science shows with kids , start a family garden here are few more tips on raising kids to love nature   

    Also remember to give kids treat and let them have their favorite food once in a while. Helps Kids be open about about food but stick to natural food and this will help with eating healthy. 

Also do read my post regarding Brain food for kids  

                                                                                  - Spell and charm 

How to Plan for Recovery after delivery

New mother care - Plan before baby arrives 

In planning for newborn baby mothers often neglect self care. But care and recovery of new mother during initial days is important for herself as well as baby. The health and mind of new mother affects the baby likewise. While it is but natural to prioritize needs of baby, take out few minutes for care for self as well. Here few quick tips how you can plan in advance and ensure self care with ease after baby arrives:

1. Being mentally prepared – Having joy, anxiety, excitement and fear all at same time are part and parcel of parenthood. Accept your feeling, share with your partner. Post baby depression is very common; ensure to have friends/family to help you at this time. Most of the first time moms expect initial baby days to be filled lot of happiness and most of baby care. But most moms have few initial difficult days dealing with pain, mood swings, anxiety, dealing with baby needs all the time. These last for around 2- 3weeks, Ensure to get maximum help during this time.

1. Planning ahead of time – Plan ahead of time and get ready with supplies and services you will need after baby. Ensure all baby shopping is done, Hospital needs are taken care off, also look into services like lactation consultancy or baby care classes you may need.

1. Shopping - Start with making shopping lists when shopping for baby essentials, baby gear, self-care. Ensure comfort as for-most when buying for self or baby. Take inputs from friends and family, internet regarding baby supplies. Go over the list with your partner to ensure all gets covered

1. Caring for self and being connected – Get help with watching over baby for few initial days as you recover. Plan for a time daily to get a hour for yourself so you can exercise, take bath, meditate, connect with friends and family.

1. Information that helps- Gather all the information that might be helpful after baby. Find a lactation consultant, good paediatrician nearby, Join forums where other mothers can help you out and cope with change. 

1. Social commitments – Ensure to take proper rest for first couple of months. Minimize socialising and travel along-with baby. Let people at work, friends and family know in advance that you will be busy with baby and will not be able to present yourself at a near occasion. New parents might have visitors but as a new mother feel free to excuse yourself as you will need your rest the most

1. Ensure to have support – Ensure to create a support back up before baby arrives. Have family, friends, neighbours, colleagues to help with you in emergencies. Collect helpful information like emergency numbers, Call drivers, call cabs, hospitals, Delivery supermarkets, Food deliveries etc all important numbers.

1. Eat Healthy - Plan to eat healthy even after delivery. Do not plan for diet regime in first 6 months after baby. Recovering from delivery requires mother to have healthy food 

1. Doctor's schedule - Post delivery you will required to your visits often for few intial days for regular check ups. Ensure to stick to these and follow instructions by doctor. Take care of having all medicines as advised by doctor. Post delivery there is lot of changes in body, always discuss with your doctor in case of any doubt

1. Activity and Exercise – After initial couple of weeks rest, resolve to remain active every-day. Ensure daily routine, take care of your grooming and be active. Ensure to continue your habit of a bit of exercise every day. Starting with third week after delivery ensure to get a bit of fresh air and do slow walking just 10 minutes a day. Take advice from health care on same after delivery. Exercise helps recover fast and get in shape

1. Keep a Diary - Keeping a diary will help you stay sane even in all the chaos of parenting. Write down things you want to do when baby comes and make effort to follow it up. Write your resolutions, write about near-ones, who helped, write about your preparations, write about your experiences. It is a great way to keep your mind clear

Motherhood is full of joys. If you want to enjoy it fully, take care of self with baby. Recovering from delivery, will be easy if you are positive and are easy on yourself .It is best not to try to do too much for few initial months and just take rest, bond with baby, eat healthy and love yourself 

Also read my post  about Making home ready for baby

                                        - Spell and Charm 

                                                   

How to prepare your home for your NEW BORN

NEW BORN CARE – Making the home ready

   Newborn care requires lot of preparation to be done for the coming of little one. This involves preparing self and home for the arrival of new member in family. When the newborn is arriving mothers traditionally are known do get into doing lot of house-keeping for making a safe nice home. Cleaning and organizing the house, buying new things for baby are quite common. Below are few points to guide on how to make home ready for baby:

 1)    Cleaning the house – This is best to be tackled in a planned way. Break up the work into small tasks that can be done over few days. Take outside help if required. It is important not to exert yourself at this time. Do not get a new paint/polish done as these contain harmful chemicals. If you have to really get a pest control done, research the market and try the non-chemical baby safe ones.

 2)    De –cluttering the house – when cleaning the house also engage in de-cluttering. This is important as you will need space for baby stuff also. Ensure to remove all toxic material from the house

 3)    Organising essential – depend on organisers, like diaper bag organiser, wall organiser, bottle dryer and holder, bath organiser and bed side organisers. These will ease managing baby things

 4)    Newborn space – Make a cosy and comfortable space for newborn Ensure room temperature to be just comfortable, too hot or too cold is not good for baby. Bed room of baby should be warm. Ensure the room is not damp, is dust free and is properly ventilated

 5)    Play time -. Ensure a separate space for play and separate space for rest. Babies get easily stimulated so try to keep the sleep time calm. Also identify a place where you can sit for some time in a garden or a park where baby can get sun and some air.

6)    Calming the home – Keep in mind that newborn babies need lot of rest. Babies in initial 3 months sleep as much as 16-18 hours in a day, accordingly ensure a nice quiet place for baby to sleep. Ensure guest room is separate not close from baby room. Choose the room with minimum noise for baby. For sleeping dimly lit room suit best. Ensure a night light is put in all the rooms to help at night-time.

 7)    Bonding and keeping things close – In initial days you will needs your rest as much as baby will. So ensure to keep baby essentials and your room close by. But ensure these are not in baby reach. Also as it is important to bond with baby in initial days, plan to keep baby crib close to you and spend as much time with baby as you can  

 8)    Ensure home is well stocked – Ensure the home is well stocked with food and snacks. After baby if your will be feeding you will need a mini-meal in every 3-4 hours. Also as there will not time for cooking look at some healthy options which are easy to cook also

9)    If you have a older child (or a pet), start conditioning them about babies coming. Teach them about how they should behave. Get help with managing older child at home or at a after-school centre for few initial days. If they will be sharing the space make them understand slowly with love 

10) Decorate house for baby home-coming - Decide the coming home outfit for yourself and baby. Arrange for a small celebration with pictures to be taken with friends and family. Plan to enjoy and capture those memories to be cherished

Making home ready and safe is just the beginning of what is takes to raise a kid. But trust me it is more joy than work and completely worth enjoying. Enjoy Motherhood!

                                      - Spell and Charm 

How Parents stress affects Child?

Parents stress and child 

The urban life styles today requires double income families more due to tacky job situations and consumerism. Thus due to both parents working, the kids are increasingly being left over with either grand-parents or outside institutions to be take care off. So let alone the family with single parent, even in the common households children face stress as they spend time at after-school child care or at home alone. So as the parents struggle with work and home chores, kids struggle with caring for themselves. To add to this parents stress is stressful for kids as well. How? 





Parents are first teachers:


As parents we spend lot of time thinking what is best for our kids, enrolling them in best schools, best after school care, weekend programs. But what we forget is that kids are great observers they learn everything they see. They see how we run around all day, multitask, and handle our relations. They also see surprise, anger, pride and how we react to different situations.  What they learn every day by only watching cannot be filtered but as parents it is upon us to help them see, how we feel various emotions and how to tackle them. So tackling parental stress is as important for parent as for the child.

As they say Like Father Like Son, Like mother like daughter, The age old saying which means that son tend to do what their fathers did before them



Living a fast life
The everyday rush is in a way incorporated in todays’ life.  As morning routines must be rushed, kids have to be rushed to school. School life these days is stressed due to various reasons. Then kids after return are either overscheduled with homework and play activities or busy with screen time. So in this fast life when do they rest? How do they relax or get over with their daily stress?

Stress and Enjoyment
An Unhappy mother is an unhappy family is another age old saying

When parents live stress, Kids feel it too. If you are a parent who is continuously in stress conditions, but still you manage to keep a smile and happy face in front of kids, It is very brave of you. But not helpful as your stress is bottled and It will hold you back from enjoying life. You will be tending to child with heavy heart and a fake smile. Calm mind is base of healthy living, freeing your mind of stress for being happy is as important as eating healthy food for good body

Stress and Anger
Stress and anger mostly intertwined.  When a person is stressed anger finds its way. Being tempered, hostile and sarcastic are common symptoms which start affecting our daily life. A person who may not be much stressed but vents his anger more often is not so bad for self but not so good for child. Competitive and workaholic parents many a time carry the stress baggage at home also, And lot many times forget child needs love more than discipline and food.

Parenting and patience
Parents as everyone else can be stressed and angry, but as adults know how to control and express emotions. Children however are slow to understand and process and most of the times cannot tell us how they are feeling but give us some signs. When parents are stress, it is difficult for them to focus their mind on understanding what child is trying to tell. Parents may often just react to the child’s behavior very strongly but we forget Parents as adults have developed a mechanism and are able to manage stress, but most children experience difficulty in handling emotions. Parenting requires lot of patience and stress management

Depressed Parenting
Depressed Parents are less loving and nurturing, and very moody and inconsistent towards children. Parent’s state of mind has immediate effect on children. Depressed parents are likely to have kids who have anxiety, depression and academic difficulties. 


Parenting might be difficult and in itself stressful at times, but having stress free happy kids is worth effort. So for parents de-stressing every now and then is important to raise happy and positive kids. Parents who handle their stress well, are able to support kids better. 


Do read my previous posts on how to de-stress - 

Parenting- How to stop worrying

40 Quick tips to De-stress

                                                                    - Spell and Charm