Practicing self-care with the kids

One week down! How’s it going!?!  Have you reset yet? I have. But I’ve been thinking about how I want to include my kiddos in this reset mindset. Specifically in the area of self-care…for kids. 

I can hear my mom laughing right now at the thought. Simply because her generation barely acknowledges self-care as a real thing. You just do what you have to do. 

In recent years, I have been re-learning (or learning for the first time) what self-care means. It’s everywhere and I honestly can say that maybe I wasn’t the best at it. 

Correction. I suck at it. But I am trying. Stay with me here. So what do I mean by self-care for kids?

Kids do what they see the people they love do until they know better or different. That’s why I have made it a personal mission to chat with my kids about taking care of their bodies even at this early age. Not long, drawn-out discussions but teachable moments whenever the opportunity presents itself.

For example, Zara loves to linger in the bath every night. She calls it chilling. I used to rush her until I realized how much of our lives is being rushed. Who knew it would take a whole pandemic to slow us down?

So I decided to teach her how to make her baths an experience. Yes, at 7 years old. I’ve taught her to add some oils to her bath and allow her to relax a little longer. Why are we rushing anyway? 

*Full disclosure: We do nighttime baths

I want her to enjoy her “me” time (even at this young age) because hopefully, she will grow up to be an adult who demands it for herself. So instead of needing to re-learn this at 45 like me, she can start learning at 7. This “un-rushing” is even as simple as making sure we all take our time to actually moisturize our skin after a bath/shower. Not just slapping it on and going…but taking time to really nurture your skin. It sounds really hokey but if you think about it, I am sure you can admit that there are some things you rush through also. 

The same goes for my son. Allowing him to play in the water (he has toys galore) instead of hurrying him out will allow him to be accustomed to doing something simple for himself at the end of the day. And yes, he gets the drops of bath oil in his water too. You can find the oil on my Amazon List. 

I’ve also started doing night time family time stretching routines. Sometimes it’s family-friendly yoga but mostly it’s just to stretch. 15 minutes tops. They never fight me about it either. They have even reminded me on a few nights. Now, this is just week one so let’s see if it sticks but so far so good. Small steps. . I tell them the stretches help you to sleep better. We even laugh at each other as we fall and mommy busts her ass…quite often.

We do have the Peleton in our home and they have quite a lot of family-friendly classes ((floor exercises, stretches) that are anywhere between 5-30 minutes. We all enjoy it. I’m hoping we form a habit with this. And if you follow my Instagram stories, you know that my Zavi does NOT play about his workouts. 

January 2021. Forming more intentional habits and bringing the kids along this time. Nothing huge. Right now it’s enjoying bath time and stretching with the family before bed. Who knows how those habits will blossom when they are adults? 

Do you remember any self-care or habits that you learned as a kid that you do to this day?

*Remember to try the bath oil here. If you purchase from the link, I will receive a small commission that helps me continue making free content on this blog.