As a parent it is part of your role to nurture your children and lead by example. Would you expect your child to know how to dress themselves, tie their shoelaces or cut up food without first showing them how? These are important life skills we easily teach our kids and milestones we delight in when they are achieved. However we don’t always realise the importance of teaching our children about health and wellbeing and creating healthy habits.
Aside from perhaps saying no to sugary treats from time to time, are you actively ‘showing’ them what it is to be healthy? This is where the saying ‘Monkey see, Monkey do’ rings true. Kids that grow up seeing their parents make healthy lifestyle choices, choose healthy eating options and being active will naturally make similar choices as they grow into young adults.
Thinking you can teach your children about being healthy while you make bad food choices, spend too much time on the couch and partake in little to no physical activity is foolish.
Childhood obesity is still an ongoing issue in Ireland – one in five Irish children is considered to be obese and a study by Barnados shows that a least a third of children have experienced an increase in mental health issues during the Covid crisis.
It is in our hands as parents to begin to change these statistics. Parents are their children’s first and most influential role models – kids idolise their parents! We understand that they too need support and we aim to give parents access to as many tools as possible in order to help provide this support.
Recently RINKA has introduced ‘The Three Pillars’ to families, where we take into consideration fitness and activity, food and emotional wellbeing. Together with The Cool Food School and Unlock, RINKA has combined numerous tips and advice on how families can lead by example and create healthy habits.
For more details and lots of resources on how to get started with introducing your children to a well balanced healthy lifestyle see our Three Pillars Blog linked here