No Excuses!

An article in the Montreal Gazette written by columnist Jill Barker called Turn Excuses Into Action talks about the main excuses that couch potatoes use to get out of exercising. 

One of the biggest excuses, especially for busy moms, is that they are already wound up from chasing after kids all day.  This can no longer be an excuse. For one thing chasing kids all day can be stressful. The purpose of exercise is to release stress, not create more of it. 

If you need to be with your kids all of the time then consider exercising with them.  Play games on your front lawn or in the park with them such as ball, Frisbee or hide and seek. You can also do things like play hula hoop with your kids, hop scotch or jump rope. Yet another thing you can do is just take your kids out for an exercise session based on simple workouts. Do ten sets of simple exercises as a group.   Other athletic activities that kid love are hiking, swimming and climbing. 

Sometimes it is not the kids that are in your way when it comes to getting an exercise program off the ground. An excuse that a lot of people use is 'I'm not a gym person.' You don't have to go to a. Biking, canoeing, swimming, running or even taking a walk in the park count as legitimate forms of exercise.  This way nobody is staring at your body or if you are wearing the latest in spandex fashions.  And unless your kid is a teenager he or she is probably not going to care what you are wearing if you decide to go through a jog in the park with them. 

One of the main excuses that people use is 'I am not in good enough shape to exercise.' This of course is a self-defeating excuse with no way out of the dilemma.   This includes people that feel too fatigued or too stressed to exercise. Unfortunately the more you lie around the more you are just going to want to lie around. This is a vicious circle because it can lead to depression, obesity and other problems.

 Once you feel that you are getting out of shape the best thing to do is nip the problem in the bud before it gets worse. For one thing you are setting a bad example for the kids by lying around all dyad. Barker suggests that the only way out of this one is to keep your goals attainable and start out slowly.  If you are so fatigued that you can't do much more than walk around the block then by all means get up off the couch and walk around the block.  Ask one of your kids to take that walk around the block with you. Every little bit you do will help. In other words, get off the couch and exercise anyway! 

Parenting Tips
, , , , , , , , , , ,

Feeling Guilty About Daycare

Should you consider putting your kids in day care?  The answer is yes unless you feel too guilty to do it.

Guilt is definitely a problem for some parents when they are first considering daycare simply because they were raised by a mother who stayed at home.  The truth is that your child might be better adjusted if you are at home but sometimes financial necessities make it crucial to enroll your child or children in a place where they will be cared for by someone else all day.  The problem can be getting your kids into the right daycare – meaning that it is one that you can afford and one that you like. Another consideration is of course the location of the daycare. It needs to be a quality daycare that is also close to you. Of course not all of these requirements can always be found in one daycare. 

Sometimes you have to sacrifice one perk for the lack of another and that is where the guilt can really kick in. It is not nice to think about your kids being put through a long commute home every day or less than delicious food because of budget or location considerations but sometimes you can't help these things. 

The best daycare for your child might also depend on what stage of potty training and the like that they are like. Some daycares may offer things like potty training and others may not. This is the kind of thing you want to check into because you don't want your child to be developmentally delayed because of a lack of attention from daycare staff. If you are feeling guilty one thing to think about is how well socialized your children will be as the result of being put in daycare. Whether the daycare is great or crummy your child will be exposed to other types of children and different situations. This could teach them tolerance and coping skills that they might otherwise not develop if their mother at home raised them only.  You are teaching them how to get along with others which is really going to benefit them once they hit grade skill. 

In essence what you are experiencing, as guilt may not be guilt at all but rather a reluctance to let your child grow and beco0me a person on his own terms.  It can make you feel like time really is flying by fast. One thing about most daycares, especially the really good ones are that they do not let you pay monthly or week-by-week sometimes. Y

ou might need to book a spot in a quality daycare by putting down a deposit for the whole year. This of course can be expensive so make sure that putting your kids in the daycare is what you really want to do because you may not be able to get your money back.

Parenting Tips
, , , , , , ,