Raising a Healthy Family

Cindy on April 7th, 2008

Raising a healthy family means different things to different people. So, while I will not be able to provide advice that works for everyone, I certainly am going to provide the basis that may help you in raising your family the healthy way. Start with your definition of a healthy family, and then develop your plan of action on how you are going to do it. Finally, evaluate periodically to see where you stand in your goals. Purely as an example, I will use my own definitions, goals, and current evaluation to show you what I mean.

My family started close to five years ago. Young, and impressionable, I knew nothing but what my family had shown me. With this, I decided to develop my family strategies based on what I loved about my family, while also changing my approaches to the things I thought could have been handled differently. For instance, if my mother said something in hopes to get one response, but trigged another and it backfired; here is where my adjustment would be made to match what I think would have worked better (speaking from the child point of view, not the parent).For me, health means strength, unity, and trust within the family home. It means keeping your mind, body, and soul healthy. You must, as a parent, be healthy before you can work on raising your children to be healthy.

My child must be balanced with a variety of interests in what he chooses, so long as they are not detrimental to him or others around him. Morals and values are not optional. No question, even inappropriate, will ever be left unanswered. I will only alter my answer from the truth if he is not mature enough for it. He should and will be able to speak to me about anything, anytime, forever…never being afraid to tell me the truth. He should continue to strive to reach higher levels than the generations before him. My husband and I are a team, no matter what, and will act as such at all times! These are my goals as of the writing of this blog, and in having yet to delete a goal from this list since I started my raising my family; I know that I will continue to add them as I become a bit wiser.I will carry out this plan through patience, honesty, trust, loyalty, and compassion toward my family; while making it known that I expect, and deserve the same in return. If I do not receive this emotion we must reconsider the definition of a team! Continuing to work on bettering myself, will only strengthen the familial bonds that raising a healthy family needs. My evaluation of these same goals today, is positive. While it has not been easy for us, every day we continue to work toward these goals in some fashion. I can say that I always answer his questions, even if they are the same ones he has asked many times, and if I know he already knows the answer. Some of them do require an alternate explanation, but are as close to the truth as he needs right now. It keeps the conversation going, which is wonderful. Encouraging him to learn and keeping him interested in many things means that I am on my way for now.

Now that I have shared my plan, goals, and evaluation with you, you can use it as a guideline for developing your own. Feel free to get as specific as you want, and include whatever you want. Get family input, too! If you want anything in life, you start with a plan, right? As silly as it may sound to some of you, I promise it helps you prioritize and you will see improvement in your family with commitment to the plan.

Consider physical, mental, social, spiritual, health and what each means to you when you figure out your personal tactics for raising your healthy family. Whatever they are, hold them close to your heart, and strive for your version of a healthy family. You may even achieve perfection, by your own standards, anyway.

How do you raise a healthy family? What does it take? What do you consider a healthy family? Share your thoughts, below so that we may help each other!