The dream of every parent is to see their kids happy. Giving your kids the happy and healthy life is what you can do as a parent for their successful adulthood. Happiness is not just giving them pleasures or giving what they want. It’s all about to grow them with love and affection.
Happiness is not a habit, it depends on the mood. Mental, emotional, and physical actions are the indicators to determine one’s happiness. Sometimes many parents find it hard to balance what is best for them and what makes them happy.
This article discusses the characteristics of a happy child. It presents the ways and tips to raise a happy child.
Characteristics of Happy Child:
Here are the few traits that are common in a happy child:
1. Socially Engaged:
Happy kids feel free to play with friends at school. They engage with everyone actively whenever you attend for any parties. Happy kids have self esteem and self confidence which makes them socially active.
2. They have less Screen Time:
The happy kids are less reluctant to spend time in front of computers playing video games and watching videos. They show interest in playing outdoor games.
3. A happy child is more positive:
Happy children have a more positive outlook. They accept the success and failures equally. Happy kids work hard to overcome the negative things and they remain grateful.
4. They get emotional and academic support from the parents:
Parents of happy kids support them academically and in dealing with their emotions. This helps the kids to overcome their weakness thereby they can pursue their passion.
5. A happy child is more matured:
Happy child becomes more mature in the long run. They can distinguish between good, bad and needs, wants. They can understand the value of the things and money.
Few other characteristics of happy child are:
- They get proper sleep
- They can model their choices and career.
- Happy kids are more punctual
- They are loved by their parents.
- A happy child has the good character and learns new things easily.
- Sharper grasping abilities
- A happy kid knows the value of relationships and never gets into risky behaviors
- They know how to model their successful lives.
How To Raise Happy Kid:
Happier kids are more likely to achieve balanced and successful lives. Here are the few tips to raise happy kid:
1. Encourage Interaction with Nature:
Allow your kid to have a more green time by encouraging them to play outdoors. Outdoor play yields many fruitful results. Nature scents increase your child’s mood. Encourage your kid to do homework in the lobby where they have interaction with greenery.
Outdoor play helps your kid to improve social skills which helps them to achieve healthier relationships.
2. Help Your Kid Feel Connected:
The best way to promote your child’s emotional well being and security is by fostering the connection with you. Make your kid feel connected with the other family members, friends, and neighbors makes him feel secure. Let them feel that they are being loved, cared for, understood, and acknowledged.
You can achieve this by adopting the following:
- Offer frequent physical connection to your kid.
- Play with your kids
- Make time for them during bed time
- Welcome their emotions
3. Teach your kid the constructive mental habits:
These habits are very important for the kids to develop positive healthy relationships. Help them to manage mood, develop a positive attitude, empathy towards others. Build them into your life so that you can easily model them in your kid’s life.
4. Limit the screen Time:
Your child might be happy playing video games and spending endless time in front of TV screens. This adversely affects your child’s psychological well being.
A 2018 Study noted that the kids who spend less screen time are happiest. Set time limits on your kid’s usage of smart devices. Don’t allow your kid to access the phone during dinner time, while driving in the car, when playing outside or at the bed time. Set the clear guidelines on the time that they can spend in front of the TV or computer. Screen time further makes your kid lazy and physically inactive.
5. Don’t Grant Every Wish:
Children often throw tantrums to fulfill their wishes. Don’t offer them short term bubble happiness. If you keep on grating their every wish and desire, you are making them away from reality.
Most of the kids lock their parents with their anger, sadness, and frustration. Over cuddling parents being unable to see their kids crying grant their wishes at the fingertips. The kids who rarely come across the negative emotions may face many issues in the teenage and adulthood stages.
6. Educate them Self management Routines:
Adopt the self routines that raise up the levels of happiness. Some of the self management routines include exercise, meditation, listening or playing music, walking. Implement these routines along with your kid that helps in enhancing your bond.
7. Teach your kids to Build the Relations:
Relationships play a prominent role in kid’s personality, life choices, and overall behavior. If affects their physical, mental, social, and emotional health. Positive relationships with parents helps kids in enhancing their problem solving skills.
The key in building strong and successful relationships is empathy. A child with secure relationship with their parent learns to balance emotions under negative situations.
8. Indulge in Gratitude:
Kids who welcome gratitude in their lives are happier. Gratitude helps people to achieve healthy and positive relationships. Children will mimic the things you do. Therefore expressing your gratitude for the great things your children do will make them to do the same.
Speak frequently at dinner time and at the bed time about the things that you are grateful for. Encourage your kid to practise the ways of thanking his teacher for helping during the academic year or coach for his kind attitude.
9. Praise the Efforts instead of Results:
Try to praise something that holds within your child. Be specific while praising such that your praise should help them reinforce their behavior. Your praise towards their work and effort will help them to alter their mindset.
If your kid has proper positive and developing mindset, they can magnify their ability to deal with the academic setbacks and other difficulties.
10. Model Optimism:
Today’s world needs optimistic behaviour. Some are born with optimistic behavior. But you can easily cultivate optimism in your kid. Teach your kid on confronting the negative self talk.
Teach your kids that life is a combination of good and bad things. Inculcate the habit of receiving both good and bad things equally. Make your kids on how to learn lessons from the failures and move on.
11. Never Keep Expectations:
Never mark any expectations for your kids. Expect some effort from your kids but not perfection. Never bang on them for ranks. This makes the kids to feel pressure. Majority of the kids who were constantly praised for their intelligence never dare to take or step into tough tasks.
Even if your kid fail to achieve something, praise them for their efforts.
12. Give them Proper Sleep:
Deprived sleep levels increases the risk of stress levels thereby showing negative effects on brain development. Poor sleep affects the mood whereas the healthy and sufficient sleep increases the spirit of happiness.
Implement the proper sleep timing and reduce the screen interaction before sleep time.
13. Teach Self Control:
Eating extra cookies and chocolates, spending endless time in front of the TV or skipping homework may give your kid the temporary pleasures. But in the long run it adversely affects their development.
People with better self control techniques are rarely to be thrown into tempting situations. They set themselves to be happy with what they have right now.
14. Assign Real Responsibilities:
Responsibility is not really assigning the task and completing it in a stipulated time limit. The real responsibility lies in allowing your kid to take action on their own.
Hand out the small responsibilities like preparing their snacks, keeping their room neat, clean and organized from the early age. It is not an easy task to spring them responsibilities when they grow up and habituated to rely on you.
15. Nurture You Happiness:
If your children absorb everything from you, then the mood as well. Happy parents are likely to have happy kids. Children of depressed parents are at the risk of anger and depression.
Make yourself happy, if you want to see happiness in your child. Practise some relaxation techniques. Nurture the happiness by building strong and healthy relationship with your spouse.
16. Respect Emotions:
Acknowledge and respect all the feelings of your child. Be empathetic towards your kid’s negative or sad emotions which helps them to wipe off their sadness and move on.
Do not throw immediate responses to your child’s feelings. Have an open ear towards their feelings to offer them the secure feeling. For example, if your child throws a tantrum, never interpret with the negative responses like yelling. Instead try to sit with your child when every is set and know the reason for their sadness.
17. Eat Dinner Together:
Allow your kid to spend quality time with all the family members at the meals time.
Cooking is a great way to connect with each other for funny experience. Involve your kids in doing small kitchen activities like washing vegetables and fruits. It is the best activity to teach your kids food safety.
Eating together makes kids feel being connected. Help kids to focus on enjoying each others company by avoiding screen time while eating.
18. Teach self-Discipline:
One of the main goals of parenting strategy is disciplining your child. Self discipline helps the kids to reach the parameters required to achieve long term success. Self discipline plays a prominent role in making the kids responsible.
Create a daily schedule and make your child to stick to it. Divide and organize the time between various activities like chores, home work, and fun activities. Make your kid to understand the reason behind your underlying rules.
19. Let them understand the difference between wants and needs:
Bringing lots of gifts to your child and granting them whatever they want to make them happy. But it affects the psychological well being in some way. Overindulged kids may struggle to identify the difference between needs and wants.
Allow your kids to work hard to gain something they need. Teach them the value of hard work.
20. Celebrate as a family:
Celebrate the small and big things like your kid’s first day of school, good grades, promotions etc. You can organize the celebration by planning a trip to the park, or throwing a surprise party at home.
Happier families are known to grow happier kids.
21. Encourage your kids to be generous:
Encourage your kids to survive their lives in a more meaningful way. Children are found to be happier when they give treats than receiving the treats.
22. Promote a Healthy Body Image:
Help your kids to build self esteem by promoting the healthy body image in children.
Overweight kids are more prone to be affected by negative comments. Encourage your kids to have a healthy body language by adopting the good and timely eating habits. Don’t compare your kid’s appearance with others which may destruct their confidence levels.
23. Teach Your Kids Positive Thinking:
It’s very common to hear your child expressing negative thoughts. Just as the adults do kids also dwell more on the negative thoughts. Negative feelings always produce stress chemicals in the brain. As a parent, you have plenty of things to deal with your kid’s negative attitude and help them build positive attitude.
Teach your kids on receiving the negative emotions and processing them in a healthy way. Help them to set and achieve goals. Share and enjoy your positive experiences together with your child.
24. Keep Them Engaged:
Keep your kids engaged in various activities like games, crafts and painting. Make your child to play with the different age groups.
25. Provide them opportunities to learn new skills:
Parents are the child’s first and most important teachers. New skills are very essential for the kids to survive in the competitive world when they grow up. Teaching your kids the skills required to manage their behavior. Allow your kids to explore and learn new skills. This makes them to face new challenges. Stand back and let the children do what they are capable to do.
26. Teach them the joy of contribution:
The satisfaction that comes when you contribute something for the betterment of the society keeps you happy.This joy of contribution can make your kids too happier. This helps the kids to gain humanity.
27. Allow them Model their Passion:
Encourage your kid to identify their interests and model their career from the childhood. This visualization of the career gives them a good path to travel to the successful adulthood.
In conclusion, Help your kids to build a stress free environment around them and lead happy lives. This article presented the 27 simple ways to raise happy kids which helps you to develop your kid into a successful adult with emotional well being.
