5 UNHEALTHY HABITS THAT CAN AFFECT A CHILD’S MENTAL HEALTH

Now, I find it diffucult to leave the dirty plates unwashed or to go home late. The gist here is that habits are easily formed through continuous repetition of a certain experience. Habits developed over a period of time, moulds character and this bring about good success.

There are certain habits that a child will pick up and may seem harmless and quite understandable. However, These habits can endanger their health, wellbeing and happiness. Bad habits will jeopardize a child’s health — both mentally and physically and waste precious time and energy. And if there’s anything to do as parents to help your child achieve goals faster and become productive then the key is in good HABITS. Let’s take a look at unhealthy habits that can affect your child’s mental health and how to curb these habits:

1) Procrastinating-

Procrastination is one of the most common things all teenagers experience.Procrastination is when we delay or put off something until later. This doesn’t only affect teens life, productivity, and happiness but their mental and physical health too.

The good news is that this habit can be curbed or stopped for good.

WHAT TO DO: The longer a child postpones an activity, the more urgent it becomes so don’t allow them put off what they can do now!

2) Too much screen time

A 21st century teenager is acquainted with social media because of the fast growing rate of technology. Practically, almost everyone over the age of 13 has a phone; they either watch movies, play games or on one social platform or the other since it’s one of the ways to communicate with friends and stay connected to families. However, this habit is super draining for your child’s health, it can affect their sleep including friendships especially with peer pressure, social expectations, addictive trends and dangerous challenges on screen.

WHAT TO DO: Once their screen time start to replace being around other people, it’s time to set rules for everyone in the house to watch how much they are staying glued to their screens.

3) Constantly Lying

Lying is a terrible habits to catch up with whether it is a white lie or hiding something serious. Children learn to lie at a very young age. Once a child gets away with a few lies, he will start thinking he should be able to get away with them the next time which then becomes more abundant, absurd and develops into a habit that can affect their future.

WHAT TO DO: As parents, it’s your job to teach them about the importance of honesty. When you catch your child in a lie, you need to address it immediately. When you’re discussing the issue with your child, be specific about what you saw and what the problems are. Understand that you are not looking for an excuse for the lie, but rather to identify the problem your child used lying to solve and measure punishment for the behavior.

4) Skipping meals throughout the day

As a teenager, we rarely eat breakfast in my house because we were always rushing to meet up with school bus or not to get late for school. I never even knew the importance of breakfast and good food until when I became an adult.

Adolescents think they don’t need to eat since they do not feel hungry.They get so engrossed in their activities that they hardly care to complete their food or when they do want to eat; they binge on snacking which can be dangerous to health. This can result in an insufficiency of nutrition, making them feel tired and even ill.

WHAT TO DO: It is important for teens never to miss their meals and have them on time. Let them know that eating gives the body vital protein, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and everything else to live a healthy life.

5) Negative “Complex”-

Peer groups play an important role in young people’s lives, particularly during adolescence.The pressure to conform to do what others are doing can be powerful and one of the most draining habits to get into. It is common for every teen to go through feelings of inadequacy or not being good enough and it can continually reoccur and affect their mindset if not properly cater to.

There are a wide range of things that cause inferiority complex. This complex comes with doubt, lack of self worth which hinges solely on teenagers perspective about themselves. Constantly surrounding themselves with negative people helps develop these complex faster.

WHAT TO DO: The best place to deal with this complex faster is the home (i.e the connection between a mom and a child). Every correction should be targeted at their actions not personality.

Show them more love, listen to understand them not just to correct.

Mental health is important. Encourage your teenagers to always stay healthy!