Photo by Zach Reiner on Unsplash
Families tend to curate the norms they live by over time, but once they’re settled, it can be hard to make changes. That’s not always a bad thing, after all, a great habit like eating your evening meals together can carry on all the way through your children’s teenage years.
It’s also good to consider the values your family cares for. Perhaps you’re not religious, but you do care for charity and make an effort to take part in local fundraising initiatives, or volunteer at the fun run annually in support of a good cause. Moreover, sometimes the norms can develop a culture of expectations and standards within your home and benefit you in that light. For example, the health culture of your family unit is a good place to start.
But what does “health culture” within a family even mean? Well, it’s the standards, rules and behaviors that we seek to integrate, be that helping your family feel happy to go to their dentist appointment every few months, to always being open for your teenagers to come to you about issues they’ve been experiencing.
With this in mind, you might want to consider some of the following advice:
Snacks and treats
The snacks and foods you keep in your household will inevitably get eaten, at least by someone, and probably more quickly than you had imagined. It’s always good to have healthy foods and snacks ready to go so that your children don’t eat sugar day and night. Sometimes, you might even keep those under lock and key (like a vibrant biscuit tin that everyone wants to take with them). Healthier snacks, like carrot sticks and hummus, real fruit ice lollies, and leftover nutritious foods from cooked meals can always be better, but mediating this with some special indulgences can help you avoid going too far in the overdisciplined direction.
Health appointments
It’s always good to plan certain health appointments where and when they’re needed, but making sure the family have an instilled responsibility to attend the doctor’s or dentist’s office when required is always worthwhile to implement. This way, you can easily trust your child to report the symptoms of issues they’re having, scheduling a visit to the ENT clinic even when they’re over 18 and now responsible for their own visits.
Sleeping standards
It’s important to make sure that your household sleeping standards are healthy, be that going to bed at reliable times, having respect for one another by not turning on the bathroom fan during a late-night visit, and ensuring your teenager doesn’t stay up too late listening to music or playing video games (turning the bass off on their subwoofer speaker system is certainly a good place to start). This way, you can make sure sleep, rest, and a healthy culture of good recovery is always engrained in your household, even if you do enjoy the odd dinner party.
With this advice, you’ll be able to manage the health culture of your household in the best possible way.