Tell the good habits which you have cultivated in your kid

Hi ,

after play time my daughter (2.5 year old) cleans up and puts back her toys in the respective place....this has become a very good habit and reduces lot of stress in me...so i dont bother if she plays with lot of toys scatterred all around the house..if u tell her to clean up she does that almost immediately ! :)..

Also, I make her brush her teeth twice a day, trim her nails almost twice a week..which are all very important with respect to personal hygiene...(though these activities involve lot of struggle, i do it with utmost patience to cultivate them from the early years )

Do you live in chennai ?

I also try brushing his teeth twice, but I have to convince him too much for it, like when you will wake up in morning, there will be cavity in your mouth and I will have to take you to Dr and blab blab ...sometimes he agress and some times no .... 

 No, I live in B'lore.

few things that i have tried (and stil try) to cultivate in my son (1.9) are:

- waiting for his turn while playing/eating in a group(believe me, this one has been verrrrrrrrrrrry difficult)

- picking up his toys after he has played (for this, i have put a basket in the drawing room where he plays. all he has to do is put all the toys in the basket)

- having meals with family ( this can be very frustrating at times when i see him eating less. distractions are good to feed the child, but i still prefer eating together without distractions)

- helping me around house-chores (like putting veggies in fridge, picking grocery in shops, mock-dusting the furniture..psssssss..more than any help, it looks verrrrrrrry cute)

few things that i try to cultivate in my daughter (1 yr and 5 months) are

- saying Please and Thank you appropriately. Surprisingly this has been very easy :)She has been doing this for more than 3 montsh now. But you just have to keep reminding her of that often enough for the habit to sustain

- Saying a small prayer before going to bed at night

- putting back the toys after playing (not much success here as she does not play with her toys mostly :) ). Mostly, its the veseels in the kitchen that she plays with and now, I am having her put back things from where she took it

- Also training her in small errands like bringing me the phone when it rings, keeping her used tumbler/cup back in the kitchen etc

Each of these stuff is as much fun as it can be very frustating at times. I have found that it helps to be more patient at such times. Now, I enjoy all that I do with her and for her.

good thought!

- to cover her mouth when she sneezes and coughs (Dora's book on Manners helped a lot :-)  to achieve this)

- not to write in walls ( oh my god - my living room is completely sketch - pen-marker washed by now - Using Bruno - an artist story book we achieved this , ie., not to write on walls, to greater extent. but still at times she is tempted to write on wall

- Putting shoes/sandals of her own - oh sometime it is a pressure - as she wants to do that herself and takes hell lot of time when we are about to step out

- Please / Thank you - as Lavanya said - here too - it is not so difficult - Nishal says thank you very easily - but the fun is sometimes she says even when she gives!

-  narrate stories from story books in her native language- based on the picture she see - of size 10 pages - and each page with 3-4 lines

- Sit with us when we read Newspaper - events that comes with pictures of animals, flights, trains would  fascinate her and she would ask us to explain that

- Saying "sorry" - this she learnt from her friend Nishant. He says sorry, and puts "thappu - inime panna maten" on his cheek, and my daughter follows suit..

ok, now the list of things that are yet to change...

-brushing - still she cries

-potty - she is not willing to use WC.. she prefers to sit on Rest room floor :-( hope she would change soon

and so on!

SHe is now 2 yrs 3 months

pasting one article from somewhere in the same line: 

Dr. Radha Rajagopalan
HOD-Pediatrics,  Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.

1. Well, we all want to see our children growing up with good habits. That’s why it is very important to start early. The younger the child, the more unquestioning their minds will be and thus easier to inculcate good habits in them. Some of the really important habits that should be taught early are:
2. Brush before bedtime- We all teach our kids to brush their teeth before eating or drinking anything in the morning. In fact it becomes a part of our lives. But how many of us insist that our children brush before going to bed? This is a very essential habit that is extremely difficult to teach later on. In fact it is very difficult to learn later on too. If you don’t brush before going to bed, this is a good time to start and pass it on to your child as well. Its important.
3. Oil Bath-In olden days, it was said that boys should have an oil bath on Wednesdays and Saturdays while girls should have it on Tuesdays and Fridays. Well, the days could have been kept that way for convenience but the point, yes, our grandmothers were right. Oil bath twice a week is good for children and the young age is great time to start.
4. Wash hands before eating- As kids, they tend to indulge into food as soon as they see it. Thus if this habit is not insisted every single time, they soon tend to forget it. Hands are the major carriers of germs and eating with dirty hands can easily put your child through illness. The simple answer is to make them wash hands before putting anything in their mouths. So even if it is for a snack, take your kid to wash hands before eating. And soon it will become a habit for them. Of course when they are old enough to understand, you should stress the importance of hygiene and infection.
5. Cut nails once a week- Even today many of us do not cut our nails. We simply bite them off. And I don’t think we wash our nails before biting them so the risk of infection is high. And please do not underestimate this risk. So as kids cut their nails once a week so that there is no opportunity for them to bite them. And when they are older, you can teach them to cut their nails. But maintain the trimming to once a week as that how long it takes for the nail to grow big enough to bite it! google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);
6. Exercises- Teach the kids the importance of exercise at an early age. Take them for a walk and teach them simple exercises. If you have a pet dog, you can train the kids to take them for a walk. Of course if you need to exercise yourself, take this hint. You should start too and that way you can have a healthy life to devote to your kids.
7. Sleep- Well, this is a very important thing to teach your kids. Make sure they are in bed by 830 or 9 PM and wake them up by 6 in the morning. Those of you who believe your kids do not sleep early, wake them up at 6 AM whatever time they sleep. You will notice that in a few days, they will get to bed early too as they will be tired out. Its your duty to teach them the ‘Early to bed, early to rise’ principle.
8. Variety in food-  Just because your kid likes one type of vegetable, do not cook the same for him everyday. Introduce a variety of foods for your child and get them acquainted to different food types. This way you child will be able to adapt to different foods.

Its very important to teach them to respect elders. Especially in nuclear families where the scope to interact with elders is very low, it is important to emphasize the aspect of respect.

So these are some of the important habits to inculcate into your child that will make them less prone to infection, give them healthier teeth, keep them healthy and save you a whole lot of trouble and money. More importantly, they will make your kids better people when they grow up. Good luck!

 few things i try to cultivate in my daughter(2yrs 5months )

- not write on wall. sometimes she understands but sometimes she gets stubborn .

- i try for brushing her teeth twice.

- narrate stories from story books.she likes it.

- i try to let her share the things with others like with relatives and friends. 

- washing hands before eating.

-  putting back the toys after playing.

what is oil bath ?

Oil bath for kids is really good..

u need to take gingelly oil heat it and add very very little jeera and pepper seeds, and 5-8cloves of garlic in it and wait til it pops..

then wen its hot itself u need to apply on the body starting from head to toe. its applied like massaging.

wait for 5-10min and give full head bath.