These 9 Tips Will Help You Make Your Child Happier

Each one of us used to be a child. Still, those that had a happy childhood are truly privileged. Indeed, being a happy child is a wonderful thing. It is beneficial in many ways and affects our entire life.

Some parents, for one reason or another, seem to have a good sense of how to make their child happier. Even though raising a child is far from easy, you need to show constant effort if you want your child to be happy. Regardless of your life circumstances, the most important thing is that children are surrounded by people who love them.

You may already be a parent or will soon become one. Even if you are not considering having kids at the moment, the tips listed below will give you some great information for raising a happy child.

Children are what they eat

Happiness is an emotional and psychological condition, but it doesn’t mean that it has nothing to do with your child’s physical condition. Quite the opposite, just like our minds affect our bodies, so do our bodies have a say in how we feel.

That is why it is important that your child develops healthy habits, and one of the most important habits that define our lives is how we eat.

Make sure that your child eats and drinks healthy by:

Making their meals colorful

More colors means more nutritional value in their regular diet. Also, kids find colorful meals fun. Of course, this works only if you include a range of fruits and vegetables into their diet, not sodas or sweets of various colors.

Giving them water instead of soda

Water is healthy, soft drinks are not, period.

Not allowing them to skip breakfast

A healthy breakfast helps your child stay strong, keeps chronic diseases away, and kick starts their brain and energy.

It is crucial that your child develops healthy eating habits. Eating unhealthy has been associated with childhood obesity and is one of the most common health issues in children.

Sleep is crucial

Another healthy habit that your child needs to learn is to adopt a healthy circadian rhythm and get enough sleep.

Humans need to sleep well in order to be healthy, and this is all the more true for children. Depending on how old your child is, they will have different sleeping needs, decreasing the number of hours they need to sleep every day as they grow older.

Even as teenagers, children need to get enough rest. As a parent, it is up to you to make sure that your child is getting better sleep than they may want.

Teach them true values

This world is only getting crazier, and if you don’t teach your child true values, then who will? By the time children start going to school, they have already adopted most values that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

This means that they need to learn from their immediate surroundings, which is their family. Having regular family time will help your child in several ways:

• It makes the child feel important and loved.
• The child observes positive adult traits.
• You can learn more about your child’s weaknesses and use this to help them overcome them.
• Your child can verbalize their thoughts and feelings more easily.
• Finally, you and your child will develop a stronger bond.

Teach them how to be optimistic

Teaching your kid how to develop a happy and optimistic attitude will make them always look on the bright side of life. Looking at life positively or negatively will make a difference between a happy and an unhappy person later in life.

Optimists have more success at school and work, they are healthier and live longer, as well as less likely to deal with depression and anxiety. This is more than enough to motivate you to teach your kid how to be happy.

But how can you do it? Well, it’s quite simple. First, show them the power of gratitude. Also, as they grow older, try to teach them mindfulness, as this trait is very important.

Let them decide

A study has shown that children raised by parents who are caring grow up to be happier adults and more satisfied with their lives.

Supportive, affectionate parents who let their children make their own decisions build a better foundation for their children’s happiness later in life.

So, instead of exhibiting great psychological control, let your child decide for themselves. But, of course, do it within reason.

Give them responsibilities

Speaking of decisions, how about giving your children some responsibilities to make them feel like adults, at least just for a while?

People have a need to be needed. If your child feels that they are making a contribution to the family, this will increase their self-worth and happiness. This doesn’t have to be a huge responsibility. Rather, start small to see how they can manage it.

For example, you can give a three-year-old a meaningful family role like refilling your dog’s food bowl or sorting out forks and spoons. 

Praise their efforts

Self-esteem and happiness are inseparable, so your child can’t be truly happy if they are lacking in self-esteem. And most of us get our self-confidence from the results we achieve, which leaves us running on empty if we don’t see the results of our actions for some time.

Therefore, instead of praising your child’s success, praise their effort. Let them feel good for being persistent and having a growth mindset. That way, they will enjoy their activities more because they aren’t worried about failure. Consequently, they will do better and achieve more success. 

Let them play

Nowadays, children play a lot less than twenty years ago. And since playing helps children develop creativity, imagination, motor skills, emotional strength, cognition, and social skills, it is more than obvious that you have to let your children play. Even if they aren’t too fond of playing, encourage them to do so.

And this doesn’t mean playing games on a smartphone, but playing with other kids. Also, encourage your child to get physical and play sports on a team or just for fun. That will make them happier and improve their behavior.

Be happy yourself

Finally, as much as you try to make your child happy, you can’t force anything upon them. The truth is that you can’t really control your child’s happiness.

However, children absorb everything around them, including from their parents. This means that your child will notice when you are moody, depressed, or angry, and then they will absorb your negative emotions.

Therefore, it is important to nurture your own happiness. One of the best things you can do for your child is to stay happy yourself.

Happy parents are more likely to raise happy kids. That’s something to keep in mind.

Conclusion

Even though there is no perfect parent, you can surely do some things that will make your child happier and increase their chances of growing into a happy adult.

Take care of your child’s physical well-being, but never neglect their mental well-being. Whatever your child does, show them love and be happy yourself.

Of course, building upon these tips, you will learn more useful things as time goes by and hopefully devise your own rules for raising a happy child.