Parenting - Inspired Living SA

Healthy Lunch Box Challenge

As parents we all know how important it is to ensure that your children eat a healthy balanced diet and how difficult it can be to achieve, especially when you have fussy eaters in your family! When it comes to packing a healthy lunch box, we can all relate as to how frustrating it can be to continually come up with new, healthy lunch box ideas! I know that I find packing lunch boxes a challenging task, especially when you children become bored with what you are offering them. So it’s fair to say that we could all use a bit of help when it comes to “lunch box ideas.”

Just the other day a rather clever “idea” popped into my inbox, in the form of the “Healthy Lunch Box Challenge” being run by “Little Cooks Club”. Interesting – that’s what I thought, so what does this entail?

[quote style=”1″]Our “Challenge” this year is to get children eating healthy food at school during school times (08h00 – 13h00). We are only concentrating on during school, not after school. If all children are getting good, healthy food, they will all be forced to eat healthy food with their peers. – Little Cooks Club [/quote]

What are the benefits of your child eating a healthy school lunch:

As there is a rather high rate of obesity in young children, it goes a long way to eliminate this problem by excluding unhealthy options from your child’s diet.
Eating a healthy well balanced, nutritious diet is vital for good concentration and avoiding learning issues.
Certain unhealthy foods can negatively affect behaviour; some children are allergic to the preservatives in these foods which can lead to inattentive or bad behaviour in class.

How to join the Healthy Lunch Box Challenge:

First register for the Challenge. By doing so it will then allow Little Cooks Club to send you a new monthly schedule with recipes for that month, tips and ideas. It also gives us an idea to see if parents are interested in the Challenge. Click here to register.

Print out the monthly schedule and stick it onto your fridge. (This is what it looks like.) If your child doesn’t like certain things on the list then choose from the other options – everything is healthy on my list and acceptable for children. If your child has specific food allergies then please give them something else; you all know your own children – this is a guideline only.

To read more about this awesome challenge click here to visit the Little Cooks Club website.

Image source: Pinterest

Children, Family, Featured Posts, Parenting, Parenting Advice

Helping your child to develop a good body image

Nobody ever said that parenting was going to be easy and I must admit parenting two girls is not without its challenges. Especially when it comes to developing a good body image and tricky subjects and like weight, looks, sibling rivalry to touch on just a few! Just when you think you have it sussed they throw another curve ball at you!

Developing a Good Body Image

So my dilemma at the moment is how to encourage a healthy sense of one’s physical appearance without making an issue out of it or over emphasising the topic. I will not deny the fact that I have always been body conscious but I do try and ensure that I eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. As parents, my husband and I both try and focus on the health aspect, emphasising healthy body – healthy mind. In a perfect world this would be enough but unfortunately once our children become aware of the media and what the “world” deems as being acceptable – it feels like we are fighting a losing battle.

Statistically South Africa falls somewhere in the middle of the graph as far as fatalities caused by eating disorders, the USA has the highest rate – somewhat alarming when my daughters are trying to model themselves on American pop stars and actresses. Please do not get me wrong, I am not saying that all popular people have eating disorders but the media certainly makes a big deal if anyone of them puts on a few extra pounds!

After reading an article recently on the “Fad” diets that actresses follow, I was even more alarmed at what length someone will go to “lose weight”. The most terrifying diet mentioned in the article is “the Baby Food Diet” – you have got to be kidding me, this cannot be healthy or pleasant to do. The thing is I love good food to much too even contemplate doing something like this; what’s better than a delicious steak and a baked potato – yum! (I am making my own mouth water!) I will admit that I have certainly tried a few crazy “detoxes” in my time but never lasted more than a few days – who wants to eat onion soup three times a day!

Where does this leave us as parents and how do we deal with children who show signs of becoming obsessed with losing weight and developing a full blown eating disorder? I guess the thing we have to realise is that having an eating disorder does not always mean you are thin – binge disorders can make people over weight. The issue lies with an unhealthy relationship with food, so the most important thing we as parents can do is lead by example – ensure that our children see us eating a healthy well balance diet and exercising regularly. By doing this we can encourage them to do the same and focus on the health aspect rather than the weigh aspect.

I think we also need to be sensitive to our children’s feelings and perception of their own body – encourage them to talk about how they feel. Also be aware of what you say about others – I always maintain if its not positive or helpful, keep your mouth shut! Which brings to mind an incident which happened over the weekend – a rather insensitive shop assistant told my very impressionable 10 year old that she had fat on her ankles (we were shoe shopping) – as I said if you don’t have anything good to say then don’t say anything! I then had to spend the rest of the afternoon explaining that the woman had no idea what she was talking about and was just trying to make sales – needless to say we did not buy anything from her!

What can we do to help promote a healthy sense of being?

Make sure your family eats breakfast and share family meal times as often as possible.
Limit access to magazines or social media that promote underweight celebs as being glamorous – teach your children to discern what a healthy body image is.
Encourage your children to be active and exercise regularly.
Talk to your children about their feelings towards their own body.
Promote healthy self-esteem and self-respect.
Most importantly, lead by example – live a well-balanced life!

Articles I found helpful on the subject:

Images: ©FAR Photography by Super Mom & Pinterest

Children, Family, Featured Posts, Parenting

Milestones

We cannot avoid milestones – they are a part of our lives from cradle to grave. We measure our existence and our success in life by milestones, “firsts”, “birthdays”, getting engaged, getting married, having babies – they become our markers along the road of life.

As parents we watch these milestones like hawks – how fast our baby grows, when they start to walk, when the start to talk, when they cut their first tooth – the list goes on.

In our lives at the moment we are facing some rather large millstones, it is our 15 year wedding anniversary next month – yes you can be married for 15 years and still be happy and in love! My beloved is turning 40 early next year – yikes, I remember when I was a child thinking that 40 was so old! As I said fairly large milestones!

Another milestone we have been faced with recently is the decision, whether or not to have any more children – which may not be a big deal to some people but a rather large decision for us. It is almost as if you are closing a chapter in your life. It is not necessarily the easiest decision to make and you constantly question your motivation but now that we have made the decision – I believe it was the right decision and timing for us. I think that you know – that you know!

Going forward I know that there are so many more milestones that I cannot wait to experience – getting older is not one of them but watching my girls become young woman, achieving success in their lives and careers, getting married and having babies – being around to experience all these milestones with them!

So enjoy your family – cherish those millstones, celebrate each one no matter how small and insignificant they may seem.

Images: Super Mom & Pinterest

Children, Family, Parenting, Quotes

Good Manners

It always amazes me as to how easily, we as human beings have the ability to adapt and change dependant on the circumstance or situation – some boarding on split personality disorder. What we say or how we act is largely determined by who we are with and what situation we find ourselves in.

This said, what does it say about our belief system and the type of values we imparting to our children? I would like my children to grow up with good solid values, being respectful and well-rounded adults – which means that I have to be a good role model and give them something to aspire to.

I think in the world at large, most people do not share this ideology, just take a simple concept like good manners – people just don’t seem to care about manners anymore. Yes I am generalising but I see it every day – if someone doesn’t feel like greeting you they just don’t! What’s up with that? I don’t want to be a lifelong friend – but would a simple “hello” kill you???

If we as adults adopt this policy – to only greet or have manners when we feel like, can we honestly expect our children to do any differently? We should be leading by example. I understand that we all have different belief systems and morals but we should still maintain basic etiquette.

“Manners Maketh Man” – William Wykeham. How we behave says a great deal about who we are and manners stop the world from falling into a heap of savagery!

So what can we do to stop the world from degenerating around us? To me it is very simple –be the better person; never give up and never stop trying! 😉

Images: Pinterest

Be Inspired, Cape Town, Children, Family, FAR Photography, Parenting, Quotes

Grace

This has been quite a week so far and it is only Wednesday! My youngest is sick and I have never dealt very well with my kids being sick – I don’t think any mom does but some are better than others! She had seizures as a baby and throughout most of her toddling years, which was extremely difficult, especially as we had no idea what caused them. So needless to say when she gets sick I go into panic mode, even though she is turning eight in a few weeks!

I like to think of myself as a very good nurse but we all know that when it is your own child you tend to lose perspective. I don’t sleep very much and then walk around like the living dead! This brings back awful memoires of sleep deprivation as a young mother – not a pretty site!

So what can I do in this situation? I guess, I can worry myself silly or just trust. Trust that God will never give me more than I can cope with and that He has me and my family in the palm of His hand! 😀