Teenage stress? Anxiety in children? Yes, Teenage stress and anxiety have become as common as adult stress. It is alarming to see the number of teenage kids being depressed, tensed, stressed, sad…

Today, the expectations out of a teenage kid have increased drastically. Be it academics, at home, other performances, teacher’s expectations, parents expectations, peer pressure etc kids are facing a tough time to cope with this and seeking stress management.

Many parents are not able to provide emotional support to their children which are the main causes of stress. Constantly, parents are creating unrealistic expectations in children. As parents, they should understand that everybody cannot be first in class, every child cannot excel in extracurricular activities, and every kid cannot be the “best achiever” However, as the cliché goes, ‘every child is special’ is TRUE! Each kid has his or her own set of unique talents. You can help them nurture that. But demanding something out of your child is totally unacceptable.

Talk, talk and talk further with your child. May be your child might not open up. But do not give up. Slowly try to provoke them to talk to you so that you know how their school life is, what happens at tuitions, what kind of friends your child has etc.

Today, the home environment in most families is so stressful that there is no scope for the child to remain happy and tension free. Most dads are worried about their business, financial markets, Sensex…and what not. Moms too are either worried about their work, their household chores and more. How will your child grow to be happy? Avoid discussing problems in front of your kid. Make them feel relaxed with short inspirational stories and songs…which will in turn relax you as well!  
 

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Ever planted a tree? Right from sowing the seed, giving it water, nurturing it, seeing the first leaf, the flower, the fruit…the joy is incredible. As parents this is what you will experience when you see your child grow.

Here is a wonderful extract from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward not tarries with yesterday…

This passage tells a lot about parenting and since this is an art, I won’t say that there are strict Dos and Don’ts. Every parent will paint a different picture. However, there are guidelines which will help every parent to see and bring out the best in their kids.  

You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.  ~William D. Tammeus.

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Now, it might be that you as a mother would be keeping busy all day long with all the house work. Sometimes, you might wish to escape the chaos of cooking meals for your family as the work might be burdensome for you. Children would be asking you to cook some tasty delicious food every other day and you would like to have some time off for yourself. However, you would not be able to take some time off for your self as you would be having children to look after. Even you would want to have a healthy life for yourself while parenting your children to have a healthy life for themselves. So, how do you find time for your self and even do all the chores without much trouble?

Here is a solution:

Keep a list of Indian recipes that you think would be quick enough to cook effortlessly. Certain recipes can be very quick enough to cook.

You can even choose to cook recipes that do not require too much time to look after it while it’s on the burner or in the oven/fridge.

If you have older children, then you can show them how to cook certain recipes without taking your help.

Have a variety of recipes in your lists as cooking the same food over and over again could attract irritation from your children.

You can even keep half-baked food for dinner while cooking lunch in the morning.

Make a note of whats healthy for your children and what’s not. Also make a note of what your children like and what they don’t.

One thing has to be noted. If you want your children to stay healthy, you must only cook food that nourishes your child completely. Cooking fast food all the time cannot be a good idea all the time as fast food cannot enable your child to stay healthy all the time. Its better to have a variety of foods.

Finally, the moral is cook healthy food with healthy emotions as well as stay healthy all the time by giving some time to your own health as well. Be A Good Parent Today! Happy Parenting!

Life is Easy. Take it Easy.

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As a mother, you may notice several changes in your body and in your health. There is an increase in the pulse rate of about 10-15 beats per minute. You may also complain about bleeding gums. Hence do remember to visit a dentist. Some mothers feel their lungs getting cramped and hence complain of breathing problems. Abdominal itching is common during this point in pregnancy. Constipation and bloating too may be a common. From the 20th week onwards, the doctor regularly measures the belly to know about the baby’s growth and development.

Baby’s brain starts to develop in this week. The baby’s nostrils open up and the nose and the ears are more defined. A baby can actually have some breathing movements which can be checked and seen on ultrasound. The baby’s colon begins to develop further and grow upward. The baby begins to produce its own supply of insulin now. The baby is practicing breathing on a regular basis. Now, baby’s head becomes more proportional to the rest of the body. The skin too starts developing. The surface of the baby’s skin now has four layers.

Usually, the weight of the baby is approximately 285 grams. Many mothers have an ultrasound done at week 20 which may be the first exciting look at ones baby. Many mothers also start buying pregnancy clothes during this time. After all it is a time to rejoice and relax!

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·Good essay writing is achieved by practice. Hence the more your kid writes the better he becomes at it. Some of the tips for writing essays can indeed be helpful. They can be found on the internet. It is also important to be clear on the subject so that one can write about it with adequate knowledge.

Ask your kids questions that are relating to the easy. This will help him think of new points for the same. Clear conclusion is a must. Hence encourage your child to develop opinions on certain topics

·Subscribe for a children’s newspaper. This will encourage reading habits that will in turn help your child to develop his language. Essay writing help can also be provided by school teachers and essay guide books. In fact participating in essay writing contests and competitions will help your kid to build confidence about writing on any topic.

·Encourage your kid to develop his or her own ideas. I have seen children actually mugging up essays! This should be strictly avoided because the whole purpose of writing an essay becomes meaningless. Most of the kids start with the same old clichéd lines while writing an essay. Encourage their own fresh ideas. This will develop their imagination.

·Tell your child about different types of essays such the descriptive style, argumentative style, persuasive style, informational etc.

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Thumb sucking is indeed not a problem for your kid if he or she sucks it before meal. This habit is quite natural and there is nothing abnormal in the same. Thumb sucking occurs because the baby’s desire to suck is not fulfilled. If the baby is fed the milk through a bottle and if he or she finishes it very soon then the desire to suck is unfulfilled and hence they develop the habit of thumb sucking. Parents can attempt to slow down the pace of bottle-feeding so that the baby takes around twenty minutes.

Apart from this, babies who are teething tend to chew their thumb because of the itching that they experience in the gums. This again may not be a permanent habit and it only persists till the time the baby is teething. Most of the children outgrow thumb-sucking between the age of three and six. However, sometimes thumb sucking can be an indication of lack of love. Give your child adequate caress and love to avoid this. Do not scold the child in case he or she is sucking the thumb in front of guests. This will hurt their sentiment. Tackle it carefully.

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 “Like fruit, children are sweetest just before they turn bad” – Dena Groquet

Dealing with children sometimes becomes difficult especially in matters of food. Children want to eat chocolates, ice-creams, pastries, cookies and wafers all day long! Some of them refuse to eat a balanced diet. Today, with ready-to-make food packets being available so easily, healthy nutritious food may be sidelined.

As parents, it is necessary that your child consumes food that has healthy nutrition value to it. Children need proteins, vitamins and minerals in the right quantity because they are growing. Encouraging the consumption of a balanced diet will ensure that your child stays healthy, fit and fine.

“The real menace in dealing with a five-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a five-year-old.” – Joan Kerr.

This is indeed true when you have to make your kid eat all those healthy food that he does not wish to eat! Parents have to keeping running after the children with morsels of food, keep telling them crow and pigeon stories and warn them that they should eat fast or else the bird will eat away their morsel and what not!

Today, research studies show how growing kids are becoming obese because of wrong eating habits. Encourage consumption of dry fruits, fruits, rich cereals like oats, jowar, soyabean etc. There are oat biscuits available in the market. Substitute them with the regular biscuits that your child may consume. Biscuits contain maida and sugar which is not very a good source of nutrition. If your child fusses to drink milk, encourage consumption of milk products like paneer, cheese, lassi, curd, buttermilk etc. You may have heard this umpteen number of times, but do put a regular exercise regime in your kid’s life!

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Do you often find your teenage child acting irrationally or confused?

If yes, then is it that you find your teenage child very depressed often than not?

Teenagers are at a stage of their lives when they get easily influenced but do not know what is right/wrong and good/bad for themselves. In short they do not understand how to act responsibly but are in the stages of discovery of how to be a responsible individual all by themselves. Their enthusiasms can be found to be very high during their teen lives and thus you might find their focus wandering from one thing to another. That leads them to a stage where they will be found confused often than not. This further leads them to depression.

Other than that, often pressures from friends, teachers and especially parents can get them depressed. Many a times, other children develop bad habits in school and these habits can also infest your child’s behavior with the same environment of other children and lead to development of bad habits in their behavior.

These bad habits along with depression can often lead to teenagers taking up things like drugs/smoking/alcohol during teenage/post-teenage life. What requires to be done by the parent is:

• A parent must counsel their children as and when they find their child feeling depressed/low/confused or even angry. “Counseling can work wonders”.

 

• A parent must be aware about what the child is experiencing in school, at home and the world outside.

 

• A parent must take note of who are the child’s friends and what kind of friends does your child keep a relationship with.

 

Indeed, these steps are not to restrict your child from doing anything but to keep an eye open at your child’s ongoings and take precaution at the same time from any possible adversity. A parents ignorance about the child and their experience of life can have disastrous results. Be supportive to your child and be a good parent today!

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It is definitely due lack of awareness of these ideas along with fear of being beaten up leads to children lying habitually.

The purpose of lying habitually may, in case, be due to a certain repetitive want or fulfillment of desire.

Firstly, a parent should love their child so much that the child knows their parents love them.

Secondly, a parent must keep a watch their child is doing all the time. This will keep them in check.

Thirdly, a parent must set rules. One rule should be of maintaining honesty and discipline.

Fourthly, a parent should maintain a balance between ‘too much love’ and love.

Here are some reasons why:

Being Possesive is a very unacceptable situation for both, the parent and the child.

Being Possesive is not confidence in the child but shows a lot o fear that leads to a parent being posseisive and strict. This strictness leads to fear in a child due to which the child might form a habit of lying habitually.

Love is more realistic as it keeps a parent with the contention in mind that their child will keep faith in their love. True love lets the parent see the reality, face it without fear and removes the fear of being punished from the child’s mind.

Instead, it instills faith in the relationship between the parent and the child which is more important.

Frequent communication between the parent and child can be the key here.

Be An Inspiring Parent!

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What parents must do is to be supportive in every way possible and be there while they need you. Co-operation from parents can help build a child’s life and help the child in being successful in their chosen hobby i.e. career.

Here is a list of hobbies that your child can pursue and create a life of their own choice. Be a pillar strength to your child today and let your child live a life completely and passionately. Be a good parent today!

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