You want to be a role model for your children. After all, you love your children and want them to grow up to be strong, confident people. However, this can seem like a major challenge if you don’t feel confident in your ability to do the things you want them to learn as they grow. There are some easy things to learn how to do if you want to be an effective role model for your children. Consider these options.
1. Cooking
If you know how to cook, then you can feed yourself and those who rely on you. While it might not seem like an easy thing to learn how to do, there are many recipes that are very simple. Basic breakfast service can be simple to put together, yet delicious and wholesome. With a little training, you can learn how to cook nourishing meals for your children and encourage them to learn how to cook and feed themselves as well.
If you want to learn how to cook, start by looking up recipes for things that you like to eat. Keep it very simple and choose a few to start with. Find easy things to learn how to do, like scrambling eggs and chopping vegetables. Once you’ve mastered a few recipes, you can branch out into slightly more complicated ones. Let your children see you learning, failing, and improving. Not only will this pique their own interest in cooking, but it will also show them that even grownups make mistakes. They’ll be better able to handle their own failures and learn from them in the future.
Once you have more confidence with cooking for yourself, invite your children to cook with you. You can teach them how to do simple tasks and encourage them to explore new foods for themselves. Doing these kinds of things together will increase their confidence as they grow. It will also allow you to bond with them over common interests.
2. Easy Ways to Exercise
Exercise is an essential part of staying healthy. You want to make sure your kids know that they need to exercise. However, you also want to make sure it isn’t seen as a chore. If your children are reluctant to exercise, then they are much less likely to do so. This can lead to health problems in the future or at least to them not reaching their best potential health. You need to be a role model and show your children that exercise doesn’t have to be hard or boring.
If you aren’t much of an exerciser yourself, now is the time to find some easy things to learn how to do when it comes to working out. Find some exercises that you enjoy doing. These can be very small things, like stretching and simple movements. You might also start taking walks. From there, join a gym or find some workout classes you enjoy. Your children will see you getting healthier and having fun with your exercise. They’ll be more encouraged to join in.
There are a lot of different kinds of exercise you can do with your children. Consider getting some bicycle rentals and riding a local rail trail together. Even playing games in the yard can get everybody moving while spending time together. You want your children to see moving their bodies as something they do for fun, not because they’re forced to. Consider their interests as well, and keep an open mind about trying them for yourself. Your child will enjoy sharing their fun with you and you might discover some new hobby for yourself!
3. Estate Planning
Estate planning isn’t something you do for fun with your children. However, it is very important. You need to be sure that your children and your assets will be taken care of if you die suddenly. Your children will need guardians and you need to make sure that you find the right ones for them before the time comes that they’re needed. Estate planning also covers what will happen to your belongings if you are to die. When you’re buying houses, you’re building up equity and assets. The money you gain here can be used to take care of your children, even after your death. But you want to make sure that you’re clear about this plan in your will so that nothing goes wrong.
Estate planning isn’t one of those easy things to learn how to do. It is something you’ll need guidance on from a professional. Talk to an estate lawyer or financial planner. They’ll help you gather all of your information and make a plan that fits you and your family’s needs. You never know what is going to happen to you in the future, but you can take steps to keep your family safe. If your children have a safe place to go and the money they need to survive, you can have peace of mind in this area that will allow you to focus on living your life with your children. Later, your children will understand that taking these kinds of steps requires dedication and love for your family, something they can apply toward their own children someday.
4. Oral Care
Oral health is important to every aspect of your overall wellness. Since your body’s systems are all connected, issues with your mouth can lead to problems with other parts of your body as well. Infections and damage can become more serious if you ignore them. Meanwhile, tooth decay and damage can have a negative impact on your self-esteem. If you don’t feel good about yourself, it will damage your mental health over time. You want to maintain your own health as well as that of your children, so make sure you emphasize oral care. Brushing and flossing your teeth are easy things to learn how to do, so teach them to your child early.
Make sure that you stay on top of your children’s oral health. Teach them how to brush and floss their teeth. Schedule their dental appointments for them. If the dentist requires followup care, make sure you go through with it. As your children get older, they’ll likely need to visit family orthodontists. Listen to their advice on things like invisalign. If you set your children up with healthy oral habits early, they’ll be less likely to have problems maintaining these habits in the future. It will also influence them to care for their own families in the same way when they’re older.
You also need to be a role model by demonstrating what good oral habits look like on yourself. Make sure that you maintain your own dental hygiene routines. Brush and floss every day and go to the dentist on schedule. Your children should see you doing these things. Even though they are easy things to learn how to do, they’ll be more likely to take them seriously if they see you taking them seriously.
5. Discipline and Moderation
Children don’t understand why they can’t get everything they want, when they want it. They need to learn about discipline and moderation from their parents. This is where you come in. Teach your children how to adopt these ideas into their own lives. Show them by how you live yours. For instance, don’t gorge yourself at a pizza restaurant all the time. Instead, show them how you can add pizza into an otherwise healthy diet in a way that maintains your wellness. When you don’t let them do something they want to do, explain why they can’t do it. While it might take a while for them to understand where you’re coming from, consistently doing this will show them that there is value to living with discipline and moderation.
Your ways of disciplining them will also make you a role model. Discipline is not one of the easy things to learn how to do. You need to find a style that suits you and your child. Your disciplining methods should teach them about the situation at hand and why their behavior isn’t appropriate. They should be able to apply this later in life.
6. Compassion for Animals
Not only do you want to show your children kindness, but you want to apply that kindness to others as well. This includes animals. Your actions will help form your children’s opinions on caring for other living things. So make sure that you take this responsibility seriously. If you’re their role model here, you need to show the importance of compassion and care for others.
You can show your care for animals through how you treat your pets. Make sure that you get the necessary dog and cat care that they need. Never abuse animals or allow anybody to abuse an animal in your presence. Your children will see the way that you care for animals and connect that with the way that you care for them.
You should also deliberately teach your children how to care for animals. This includes both pets and animals that are not connected to your family. Involve them in pet care, including things like food, exercise, and bathing. As they get older, they’ll be able to do more care tasks for your pets. You should also teach them safe ways to interact with your pets so that the pet doesn’t get hurt and your child isn’t hurt or scared either. If you encounter wild animals, teach your child how to have compassion for them. Often, this involves just leaving them alone. But if you come across an injured animal, your child is going to look to you for how to manage the situation. Your response will have an impact on their view of animals throughout their lives. So make sure that you’re compassionate in your approach.
7. Legal Responsibility
It is important that you show your child how to be a good citizen. While your kid might not understand concepts like family attorneys or family law lawyers, they will understand what breaking the rules includes. Hold yourself to high standards when it comes to the law. Don’t commit crimes, especially when your children can see it. You want them to understand that they have responsibilities to the other people in society. Their actions can harm people and if they commit a crime, then they have a debt to society that they need to pay. Teach them this through your actions and your words. If they have trouble understanding certain aspects of the law, make sure you explain it to them. Teach them how to be fair to others and uphold that kind of standard for your own behavior as well. These are not always easy things to learn how to do, so you want to demonstrate them in as many ways as possible.
8. Finance
You want your children to be financially savvy as adults. This means you need to start teaching them about money early. While SSDI claims and retirement funds might be beyond their understanding at first, a piggy bank is not. Teach them how to save their money in order to buy things they want. Open a bank account with them so they can learn about the bank and how it works. Your opportunities to teach financial skills will depend on your own situation, so sometimes you won’t be able to provide everything you want for your children. But you need to teach them how to manage their own finances and how to get through tough financial times. That way, they are prepared for whatever life throws at them.
There are some easy things to learn how to do if you want to be a good role model for your children. Consider the important things you need to teach them, then how you can apply those ideas to your own life. Explaining concepts to your children is important, but so is demonstrating their importance by doing them yourself.