Our children are growing up in a fast-paced world very different from the world we grew up in. We have many great strides and achievements to celebrate in our modern age, but in many ways we have never been more challenged when it comes to raising our children. Parents today must deal with the influence of media and marketing on children like never before. Children and parents are bombarded with commercials, advertisements, businesses, popular magazines, best-selling books, a variety of toys, and other products that tell us how to make our children the brightest, the most advanced, or give them the most of opportunities. Today’s children have more material things than any other generation, yet rates of childhood depression, high school dropout, and teen suicide are alarmingly high. Today’s children have many opportunities and many disadvantages as a result of modern life.

The modern world brings vaccines and drugs to prevent or treat deadly diseases, technologies that have revolutionized the way we live, inventions and advances that have prolonged human life and solved some of the world’s greatest mysteries. However, modern life can also be isolated, chaotic, turbulent and unhealthy. We now have more pesticides in our food, more pollution in our water supplies, the highest obesity rates of any generation, we are behind other industrialized nations in education, we are destroying our ozone layer and watching weapons being produced of mass destruction around the world. the world. We have lost our moral duty, social conscience, and with it our character. Too many people are afraid to stand up for causes and injustices and just accept the status quo with their heads down.

We need to take control of our own lives before we can bring about effective change in our communities at large. There is a great need for us to look in the mirror and reflect on how we are living our lives. Are we raising our children the best we can or are we just surviving parenthood? Why do parents feel the need to suffocate our children with materialistic things? Why do our children overeat? Why are average Americans thousands of dollars in debt? Are we trying to fill a void? Are we trying to make ourselves happy by consuming too much? If so, it doesn’t seem to work. Studies have shown that compared to people in the Great Depression era, we have much more wealth and luxury, but Americans are no happier or more content than during this time of poverty. For many of us, we have lost our sense of purpose. We are not living life to the fullest. We need to take back control of our lives and get back to basics. Materialism can spoil values ​​and happiness. At the end of our lives, most of us will not reflect on our lives and regret not working more hours, regret not building better relationships or establishing more values ​​by which we live. Here are some of my tips for living a fuller life:

• You are what you eat. Learn how to decrease processed artificial foods in your diet and rely more on healthy whole foods found naturally in nature.
• Stay active. Find some active things that can fit into your lifestyle and enjoy doing them. If you loved roller skating as a kid, invest in some skates and spend a weekend on the nature trails. Take nature walks. Practice a new sport. Learn to play tennis with your spouse. Request family bike rides. Hiking. Take an exercise class.
• Establish a support network. You need friends and family. Join organized groups with people who share a common interest. You may enjoy parenting groups, religious organizations, civic groups, or community centers. Reconnect with old friends from various stages of your life. Relationships are the foundation of life. They need you to feed them and work on them. They don’t happen by themselves.
• Don’t just spend quality time with your kids, spend lots of time with them. Get on the floor and play with them. Attend and actively participate in their extracurricular activities. Get to know your children’s friends and where they spend their time. Be involved in your school. Read to/with your children every day.
• Gardening has numerous benefits for people of all ages, especially the elderly and young children. It stimulates all our senses through images, sounds, textures and smells. It can help us connect with memories and the past. Family garden. Get young children and grandparents involved whenever possible.
• Have arts and crafts time every day with your children. The biggest complaint most parents have about art is the mess. Learn to overcome this. Keep a supply of crayons, markers, or paints in freezer bags, buy art paper, or simply reuse paper grocery bags. Make time every day to get them out and do something creative with your kids. Don’t just put them in front of art, engage with them. Older children may enjoy a more detailed craft, such as building wooden models or scrapbooking.
• Cook and eat together as a family. Most of the time he will end up eating healthier than if he dined out and will be forced to chat while he sits at the table.
• Involve children in running errands and cleaning the house when appropriate. Even young children can help with household chores such as dusting, cleaning windows or hard surfaces with non-toxic cleaners. Running errands, like taking the dog to the vet, shopping should also be seen as educational for children. Get them involved by helping you make a list or choose items from the store. We also like to take our son to specialty stores, like a health food store or a pet store.
• Get outside whenever possible. Bundle up and go outside when it’s cold, put on sunscreen and go outside in the summer, and put on your rain gear and go outside in the spring and fall. Children need to play outdoors and having some of this every day is optimal. Dress for the weather and get them fun gear like sleds, rain boots, sand or water toys, bubbles to blow, and get outside. Don’t just go to the parks, experiment with hikes and nature walks, local arboretums or community gardens, large sports fields, etc.
• Have holidays and rituals with your children. Do these regular things that can be fun and look forward to right from the start. Not only can you make major holidays, but you can also incorporate lesser known holidays like Arbor Day, Earth Day, seasonal solstices into your routine. Make sure vacations are special and fun for kids.
• Teach children to put less value on material things and play with the fun of small things. Make the first flowers of spring even more fun and exciting than buying a new toy. Instead of buying a new book, go to the library every week and check out several. As soon as your child can write their own name, let them get their own library card. Take your kids somewhere where you can feed the ducks. Spend money on a membership to your local zoo or aquarium instead of buying a new toy for a birthday or holiday. Remember, children learn from us: try to be aware of how material we live our own lives.
• Do community service work with your children. Even from a young age, children can participate in volunteer work and learn about the community in which they live. Visit a nursing home with your young child. Take a tour of the local fire station with your preschooler. Have a better used party for your older child. They can have a fun party with their friends with snacks, games and fun. In the invitation, ask each child to bring a bag with items such as gently used clothing, winter coats, etc. then take the items with your child and donate them to a local homeless shelter the following week. The ideas are limitless.
• Consider bringing a pet into your home. Do your research to determine what type of pet best suits your lifestyle. Even something low-maintenance, like a hamster or goldfish, can teach a child about unconditional love and the responsibility of caring for a living thing.
• Hold weekly family meetings where you can discuss anything from vacation planning to family housework.
• Family vacations at least once a year. This doesn’t have to be an expensive trip to Disney World, just a weekend getaway to something fun in your own state will serve a useful purpose. If possible, also try to take vacations once a year with just you and your spouse. Offer family or friends a kid swap where you take your kids for a few days and vice versa, and give yourself and your spouse a much-needed break.