Family Life Is Essential for Mental Health in Children
Every parent in the world wants their children to be happy, healthy, and well adapted to the environment in which they live. But we don’t receive an instruction manual when our children come into the world. And nobody teaches us how to be a good parent. We simply have to learn as we go along, but always from the heart. Family life is a major part of all this.
Many parents search the internet, books, and other resources for information related to child development, child psychology, and parenting. Why? To try to help them succeed in achieving their goals.
However, parents may overlook the importance of daily interaction with their children and adolescents. At the same time, the influence of everyday family life has an essential role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of all family members.
Having a safe home for a good family life
Having a safe and stable home, spending quality time as a family playing, and sharing experiences, is what children need for their mental health. Little ones need someone watching over their physical and emotional health. So, family life is essential for good mental health in children.
Consistent and ongoing participation in family leisure remains important for family cohesion, adaptability, functioning and satisfaction with family life. However, we need to place more emphasis on creating satisfying family leisure experiences rather than simply high levels of family leisure participation.
5 types of family life experiences
There are five types of family life experiences that can’t be lacking in order for there to be success at the core of the household:
- Fostering relationships among family members
- Establishing routines
- Maintaining realistic expectations
- Adapting to change
- Connecting with the community
All five experiences can be strong predictors of family quality of life and resilience. Parents may feel that keeping their children involved in extracurricular activities and helping them with their homework are the most important actions they can take to ensure that their children and adolescents become successful adults.
Parent-child bonding in family life
However, they may overlook the importance of spending time interacting one-on-one with their children. When parents and children spend time interacting and having fun together, the results are invaluable. From this experience over the years, children feel important and loved. What’s more, they have the opportunity to adopt core values from their parents.
At the same time, parents have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of their children’s strengths and weaknesses. This allows them to provide sufficient support and appropriate guidance.
During these moments together, mainly when it’s one-on-one, children feel free to express their thoughts and feelings. All these experiences create a stronger bond between parents and children, leading to greater self-confidence, resilience and self-reliance.
Activities to enhance family life
Don’t miss out on these activities you can consider to increase fun time and family life. And, of course, to enhance and encourage bonding between family members.
Eating together as a family
Establish a family mealtime, which includes family input to develop the menu, help prepare the meal, set the table, serve, and clean up. It’s essential to have a regular schedule for meals with all family members expected to attend most of the time.
No electronic devices should be present during meals. Rather, use this opportunity to have family conversations related to everyday things that family members experience each day. You can also use it to plan family activities where everyone participates.
Read to your children
Get into the habit of reading to your children several times a week. For older children and teens, ask what book they’re reading and then read it with them so you can have a conversation about reading and, in the process, show interest in their interests.
Plan activities together
Finally, it’s important that, as a family, you plan activities together where everyone picks and chooses. Of course, this is something you all need to agree upon. For example, a family board game night, an afternoon at the movies, a Sunday outing, a weekend getaway to the countryside, etc. Schedule activities and commit to them together.
In short, spending time together as a family strengthens the family bond, encourages open communication, and provides an opportunity to get to know each other even better. It also provides opportunities to talk and share values and learn from one another.
Finally, your family will become more connected and cohesive and your children will feel loved and accepted. As a result, everyone will come to understand, accept, and appreciate one another.