Category: Blog

With unprecedented precautions in place all over the world, the idea of staying indoors for a long period of time, whether for the public health or for personal safety, can seem daunting, especially for people who thrive on social interaction. This new practice, currently defined as “social distancing,” may be unnerving to fathom, but there are some things that can be done to alleviate anxiety and increase your personal comfort while doing so.

Maintain Contact

Just because you cannot be physically with friends and family does not mean you can’t or shouldn’t spend time with them otherwise, according to One Medical. Aside from standard phone conversations, a number of social media platforms allow for regular daily interactions, and online services such as Zoom, FaceTime, and Skype even allow face-to-face videoconferencing for little to no charge.

Improve Your Surroundings

With the media focus on the current pandemic, it is easy to panic. One of the best things you can do to start on your secluded time is to properly clean the regular traffic areas of your living space. Aside from being good practice, it is also good for peace of mind, knowing your area is safe.

Aside from generally cleaning your living space for sanitary reasons, arranging your living space as comfortably and as anti-stressful as possible will allow for a more pleasant day. Natural lighting can also help improve your mood, so it pays to have as much daylight in your living space as possible. According to Desert Empire Mirror & Glass, adding mirrors to an interior can help spread natural light, which can significantly improve the mood of any room. Additionally, arranging your house plants to be in your primary living areas will help oxygenate the area and contribute to positive mental wellbeing.

Keep a Regular Routine

As humans in a modern world, we are used to having things to do on a somewhat regular schedule. When living fulltime inside your home, it is easy to lose track of the time of day—even the day of the week—leading to personal malaise. According to the Lowy Institute, one thing that seems to work well to stave off this feeling is a tactic used by many stay-at-home workers: the art of keeping a schedule and routine. Wake at a specific time, eat meals at regular intervals, and socialise with any loved ones (whether remotely or those who are in your home with you) at regular times. This will keep a sense of order and stability in your daily life, and you will most likely come to treasure it.

While uncertainty is the order of the day in the outside world, it can be worrisome to think about the things we cannot change or affect. But what we can affect in our own homes can make all the difference. Sticking to these principles can not only improve your daily life, but also enrich it.

Here’s another great article: How Can You Help a Child Through a Mental Health Crisis

Unfortunately, injuries to children are all too common. No matter the sport or activity, if your child is doing any physical activity, it is vitally important that they know what they are doing and how to do it safely. This may involve training, purchasing proper equipment, and building a lifetime of safety habits. After all, we all want to keep our kids safe. Here’s an overview on how to do so.

Proper Technique

When it comes to exercising or any sort of physical activity such as playing a sport, teaching a teen the proper technique is of critical importance. This means that your teen must be taught proper technique and form. This is not a minor consideration as one of the leading causes of injury when it comes to working out or playing a sport is failure to use proper technique. This is an easy habit to learn, but one which still must be taught.

A Culture of Safety

Proper training and equipment are much more than just lessons in sports and exercise—they are about teaching your children a culture of safety. This means taking risks only when appropriate and necessary, and constant conversations about safety in all aspects of life. Remember, your kids will follow your lead and your behavior. When you’re around your kids, make sure you’re following proper safety culture so they can learn from your example. You owe it to them to be an appropriate model.

The Right Fit

Protective equipment is great, but it only works if it fits correctly. This may mean spending extra money to take your child’s equipment to be professionally measured, but this is an expense that’s well worth it. This is even more important with helmets, which can prevent a traumatic brain injury. It’s possible to suffer a concussion without showing any symptoms, and even minor concussions can cause long-term injury to your brain.

Start Them Young

It’s always easier to teach a kid the importance of safety and technique when they are young than when they are older. To that end, spend a good deal of time discussing the need for them to be safe and ensuring that they have the best protection when they play sports or work out. Children are more malleable than adults and if you model safe behaviors your child will surely mimic what they see. The result? A happy, healthy kid who is adventurous, but isn’t reckless.

The steps above are relatively simple, but they are also vitally necessary. If your kid’s safety matters as much as their happiness then consider the above suggestions. Injuries are often preventable by doing simple, easy things that can result in reduced risk of harming the physical health of your child. Remember, the time to teach your kids about safety in physical activity is before an injury, not after.

For more tips to help keep your

children safe, read this article:

Teaching Your Kids to Navigate the Streets Safely

As a parent, you likely crave the day that your children are out of diapers. However, that comes with the challenge of potty training, which can be far greater than any diaper change. You can’t guarantee that you’ll avoid mishaps and accidents, but you can make things more successful for both you and your children. These are some ways you can make potty training easier and more satisfying.

Go at Their Pace

You canlook for signs that your children are ready to start potty training to let you know when it’s time to start. These include wanting to take off their diaper and alerting you they need to use the restroom. However, not every child has these urges at the same time. Forcing them into something that scares and upsets them is not the way to go. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the comparison trap where you compare them to other children or siblings who got potty trained at a relatively early age. It shouldn’t be about when they get potty trained but that it happens at some point.

Don’t Punish Them

While punishment is important for misbehavior, not immediately taking to potty training shouldn’t be considered misbehavior. Learning to use the potty can be like learning to speak a new language for your children. Methods of potty training that emphasize child interest and cooperation avoid punishment for failure. You can give your children incentives to use the potty, such as small amounts of candy. You might be disappointed when they have accidents or other problems, but you don’t need to make them feel ashamed about this. Keep your unhelpful comments to yourself and work on building up their confidence.

Keep Your Patience

Just because your children have some accidents or are reluctant to use the potty by no means should lead you to conclude that your effort is for nothing. You could probably ask every parent who’vesuccessfully potty trained their kids and they’ll tell you how tough it is, including your own. Put things into perspective as well. If the worst thing that happens is that you have to clean up some accidents, then you should consider yourself pretty lucky.

Potty training is a major milestone for both parents and children. Even if they don’t know how to put it into words, it helps your kids to feel more self-sufficient. It can also help you to feel proud of your ability to educate your children. A positive potty training experience can be rewarding for the whole family.

Read more: Baby Care Anywhere: 4 Tips for Parenting on the Go

As women, we are raised to be afraid. Aside from not trusting strangers, we learn to avoid certain types of adults, too, especially men who target women in parking lots, on dates and even in the workplace. Because so many women are the victims of a crime every year, learning female self-defense is not only necessary but also empowering. While society works on shifting the conversation from self-defense to preventing attacks from men in the first place, here are several things you should know to help protect yourself.

You Have to Practice

Self-defense cannot be mastered in a single class. In addition to physical skills, women must learn how to be more aware of their surroundings and identify potential threats before they need to attack. In many cases, learning how to be more self-aware can prevent attacks and spare women from both danger and trauma. Signing up for karate, MMA, kickboxing or other physical combat class can help you stay fit and hone the important skills necessary to protect yourself. Some of the most basic and effective self-defense moves for women include:

• The straight punch (jab)
• Groin kick
• How to escape a chokehold from the front and behind
• Throwing body weight and escaping “bear hugs” and other pinning maneuvers

De-escalation is the Best Defense

There are conditions that differentiate self-defense and assault, and often, it’s a very fine line between the two. Understand that women aren’t always going to be found innocent in attack cases, even if a man initiated the encounter. The more serious injuries a person sustains, the more likely you are to face criminal charges. Learning how to be assertive and shifting the conversation to de-escalate a situation can ultimately prove just as life-saving as many physical self-defense strategies.

Escape, Not Defeat, is the Goal

The purpose of self-defense moves is not to disfigure an attacker. In fact, you shouldn’t stick around and beat them as long as you can. As soon as they’re down, your first goal is to run and seek help immediately. Practical self-defense means that you remain aware of this at all times and you take other measures to avoid physical combat first. Your self-defense moves are to demobilize an attacker and get to safety, not to stay and engage in more physical contact than necessary. The longer you stay in a combative situation, the more dangerous it becomes. Some attackers might be scared off by a woman who can defend themselves, but others will only become more enraged and determined to harm you when they can get their hands on you again.

It’s Okay to Be Mean

Many women are afraid to stick up for themselves because they fear rudeness will only provoke an attack. You have every right to assert yourself confidently in a situation, and it’s okay to be “mean” by telling someone to leave you alone explicitly. You can also choose to ignore a stranger’s request, such as a man stopping to ask you for directions. You aren’t obligated to respond, and if the worst thing that happens is someone thinks you’re a jerk, so be it.

If you do wind up having to get physical, make sure you give the fight your all. Don’t think that getting hit or knocked down means it’s over. Your goal here is to survive, so put yourself first, and embrace all the strength inside of you to get away.

Now that you’ve read some safety tips for yourself, read more about some safety tips you can teach your kids: Enjoy the Ride: Bicycle Safety Tips to Teach Your Kids

From the birth of your child to the time they take their first steps, these moments of growth can be some of the most exciting in both of your lives. One of the major milestones in growth is when your baby is transitioning from drinking milk to eating solid foods. While you may be very anxious and ready to let your little one try every morsel of food on your plate, there are some things that you should keep in mind.

The Right Time

While some people start their baby on solid foods when they are only a few months old, it is best to wait until your infant is at least 6 months old before introducing solids. One of the reasons for this is that their tummies must be mature enough to properly digest the foods, and you want to be sure that they have gotten all they needed from their milk. When your baby is ready for solids, they will more than likely show you by wanting to touch food on your plate, watching you as you eat and maybe even trying to eat your grownup food. However, it is important that you wait until your baby is able to hold up their head and sit upright without assistance before starting this new journey.

Foods to Start With

It’s important to keep in mind the size of the food you give to your baby. Food should be cut in small pieces to prevent choking. Peas are a really great first food to start with as they are small enough not to pose a choking risk. They’re also easy to digest and great for helping the baby learn to self-feed. Single-grain cereals are also great for starting out, but foods such as nuts, popcorn, and whole grapes can cause choking and should be avoided until much later in your child’s development.

Be Patient

Not every baby is cooperative when it comes to making the transition, especially if they are breastfed. Furthermore, many children can be very picky about the things they eat, and some may not even want to try new foods. While this may frustrate you when your baby won’t even try the food, you should know that this is perfectly normal. Sometimes, it is the pressure of the feeding that can damper your baby’s willingness to say “ah.” Try leaving the food there and allow your baby to take his time and explore the food. Sure, this may result in lots of uneaten peas on the floor, but after becoming familiar with the texture of the food, they will eventually give it a try. Once your little one sees how yummy this new world of nutrients is, they will be eager to try even more foods.

Remember that no two babies are the same as far as their developmental growth is concerned. What works for one may not work for another, and that is okay. Just keep these tips in mind and helping your baby transition to solid foods can be a much easier process.

Here’s another article you might like: Healthy Habits to Teach Children That Will Set Them Up for Success