Are you satisfied with your teenage daughter’s or son’s eating habits? Do you have teenagers at home who are not happy with how they look and how much they weigh? Or do you simply worry about your younger kids who will one day become difficult teenagers and will give you lots of “headaches”. In any case, you may find interesting to read this article.
Being a mother of two beautiful daughters, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on the prevention of certain problems we all face when our children become teenagers.
Adolescence is a very challenging time for our children as well as for us, their parents. It is a test period for our relationships, for our parent-child connection that we have been developing over many years. Teenagers go through a very interesting period of physical, emotional, hormonal, sexual, social and intellectual transformations. This is a time when our children begin to discover who they are and they become independent and at the same time very vulnerable. For many kids this stage of life can be very emotional, stressful and confusing.
At this point our children can start many of their psychological complexes and mental issues, they can start to develop some health related problems that can further develop into big life-threatening conditions.
Scientific studies show that teens experience certain changes in their brain on a socio-emotional level and they crave more social acceptance and recognition. This links to sexual maturation and the development of social responsibilities. As a result, teenagers want to be more popular among friends which can in turn cause certain behavioural patterns.
In any case adolescence is a time of rapid growth and change! To support this process properly a body requires a certain weight gain to fuel those changes and transformations.
However, it is precisely at this stage that a wrong image of being slim and sexy, of being cool and accepted by society, dictates by the media to our children a wrong attitude and as a results inappropriate behaviour. Some kids may simply fail to eat enough good nutritional food to keep up with their growth and their energy. This imbalance may trigger eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. At this point, our role as parents is to be very supportive of our children so that they can share their concerns with us and ask for advise. This is precisely where our parental LOVE and PASSIONS are put to the test!
PREVENSION of these teenage problems in our children starts much earlier in their life. It is integrated into our family life style. Normally kids who lack in confidence are more vulnerable to the huge pressure they experience during adolescence and teenage girls with body image problems are at higher risk of eating disorders. You will help your children to feel good about their body if you:
- Keep telling them and especially the girls how beautiful and great they are! This is vitamin L (L is for love), an essential component of health and self-steam for our kids. We need to find the way to show it, not just think about it quietly in our head, but actually say it out and demonstrate your love in different ways (kisses, hugs, time spend together, small presents, ect.)
- Never talk negatively about your own body. We need to demonstrate that each body is different, a fact that is absolutely normal and acceptable.
- Model a healthy life style and good exercise habits. Have an active family hobby like going to a swimming pool, going skiing or playing a football.
- Go food shopping together with your children, explain to them the difference between healthy and unhealthy products and why it is so important to eat nutritionally dense food.
- Cook together with them and have quality family time by experimenting in the kitchen with different ingredients and new recipes.
- Teach them to serve food in a nice presentable way and decorate the table so that dinner time becomes a great family moment.
- Teach them to be present while you eat! When you eat even a small sack, put away any gadgets like phones, tablets, toys, books, ect. When you are present during eating process and focus on your food, you enjoy your meal much more, you start to notice the different flavours and tastes. This is a very interesting experience that can also be used as a game – “Guess what is in this dish? Which ingredients have been used here?”
Therefore, by helping our children to develop a good and healthy appetite for real food we build a solid foundation for their health and for a balanced attitude in life. It means they will continue to eat healthy and be strong, react appropriately to stress and emotional pressure, have more energy to face difficult times and be less vulnerable. It is our responsibility to show them the right way to eat, live and be healthy and happy!
In subsequent articles, I will share with you some ideas on how to implement these principles in your busy lives. Meanwhile I would be very pleased to hear your questions and feedback. Your comments will help me to shape my next article! Look forward to reading your opinion!
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