By Isabel Ovalle
DOHA: Creating routines is the key in helping children deal with stressful situations. These and other guidelines were talked about by experts from different fields during the Healthy Parenting Conference organised by Art of Abundant Living, yesterday.
Patricia Rocha, licensed marriage and family therapist from Denver Colorado, spoke about the importance of routines in children’s lives. She said that “routines make children feel safe, when they know what is expected from them, they behave better”. The therapist added that “love is not enough. A parent’s mission is to raise happy and competent children”.
Rocha said that even though “predictability might be tedious for adults, children thrive on sameness and repetition. They need organisation and rituals to build a sense of belonging and cohesion in families”. From this point of view, she recommended parents to lean on “repetition and predictability, which give stability to the child who, in the end, feels safe. All these tools will help the child deal with stressful situations in the future”.
Nicole van Hattem, director of Art of Abundant Living, an organisation that tries to help people “live their best life”, also participated in the conference. Van Hattem, a board certified Holistic Health Coach and she recommended parents to create visioning boards for families. “An activity that families can do together, it helps them communicate, explore what they really want and, ultimately, turn dreams into goals”, she explained.
Participants also addressed another relevant topic for today’s parents: healthy eating. Fabiola Barrios, from Creative Nursery, talked about the art of feeding toddlers that are overexposed to junk food advertisements. She spoke about the importance of family meals, avoiding too many snacks during the day, eating real food and encouraging children to “approach eating as a sensory pleasure”.
To conclude, Jacob Melaard, founder of NLPeace talked about helping children deal with peer pressure and bullying through an “easy to apply hand on technique from the field of energy psychology”. With this technique, said Melaard, “you will be able to reduce stress and help you and your kids to deal more effectively with today’s challenges”.
The Peninsula
