Are you a parent? Have you had the great feeling of sharing your interests with your child? Have you ever had the longing of being more outdoorsy and more eager to share your experience with your children and family? Have you thought that your children are spending way to much time in front of a screen and you’ve tried to ask them to go out and play, but getting an angry kid Instead?

I’ve been there. Sometimes I still am. I have a 5 year old son, who thinks he rules the world, and in his world he makes his own rules and the tv is his throne until HE says it isn’t. Well that is not true and the constant disagreement, does pull on my finest strings, I do confess. But keeping my cool and trying to reason doesn’t, tantrums occur and slammings of the doors were becoming frequent.

At one point I took a breather, sat down with my husband and we made rules, one of them being;

” 1 hour of tv after 6 pm, IF he had been nice and polite through out the day.  “

& let him know when 5 mins are left and again when the time is up.

This changed everything, he became more polite,  listened to instructions and was keener on going out and play. We had to make sure to be firm and consistent and watch out for what we said and how we said it. When we had the “TV problem” in order, we started to build habits.

Habits don’t become habits over night, you have to be consistent for a minimum of 2 weeks and then both you and your kid feel like this is what is suppose to happen at that day and that time. I have a major mum brain and forget almost everything. But thankful to technology, I use HabitBull as a habit-tracker and will continue to do so, it is easy in use and free.

I always wanted to enjoy the outdoors with my children, however never been physically or mentally available to go and make it happen.

I learned that the key is to start small. Our first physical habit was to go every Saturday on a morning walk, me and my husband would walk with our 1 year old daughter in a pram and our son would cycle alongside us. We started small, just around the neighbourhood. Because it was only 1 day a week we did it constantly for 4 weeks and now this is a norm for us all.

When this walk had become a habit, we were ready; we added another habit; which was to go every Friday after work and preschool and cycle or bike or do something adventurous together.

These habits bring us joy, when kept light and fun, and our kids a little structure through the weekend as well as looking forward to something through out the week, when we might not have the same time to spend some quality time together ❤

Next week I will go over general Nutrition for you and your family!