3 Kids and Us

5 Signs of Toxic Stress in Your Children

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Did you know that Americans are some of the most stressed people in the world?

When most people think about stress, they imagine adults worrying about finances, relationships, their career, and so much more. However, it’s important to remember that children can be just as negatively affected by stress as adults.

Are you worried about having stressed children? Keep reading to learn 5 signs of toxic stress in children so you’ll be able to recognize when your child is struggling.

  1. Increased Agitation

One of the most common signs of stress in children is increased agitation and other negative emotions. Like adults, stressed kids have a higher chance of overreacting to situations and having a hard time communicating their feelings in a healthy way. In order to avoid these painful outbursts, it’s important to find resources like this post that can teach you about stress management for children.

  1. Having Trouble Sleeping

Lying awake in bed worrying when you’re exhausted is one of the worst feelings. While adults can manage to power through the day after a restless evening, children can suffer a lot more because they need lots of sleep to continue growing healthily.

One simple way you can address your child’s insomnia is to read children’s books about stress together. Not only will reading to them help them feel comforted and sleepy, but the contents in these books can help them learn how to address their stress.

  1. Hyperactivity

Have you ever gotten the jitters when you feel stressed? Most adults are able to put on a mask that hides their stress from the rest of the world. Kids aren’t as experienced at this, which means their stress can also come out as hyperactivity.

If you notice that your kid is a lot more active than usual, this could be a sign that they’re trying to find a way to burn through their nervous energy.

  1. Changed Eating Patterns

Stress in children can also change the way they eat. Stress can cause your child to eat much more or less than normal and even affect how long it takes them to finish their meals. Proper nutrition is essential for their wellbeing, so it’s crucial for parents to pay attention to what and how much they eat.

  1. Withdrawal From Loved Ones

Another major symptom of toxic stress is withdrawing from loved ones. It’s normal for children to seek out some alone time every now and then to decompress, but it should be concerning if they start isolating themselves on a regular basis. Respecting your child’s boundaries is great, but you should always be patient and try to get them to open up about their feelings so you can help them feel better.

Now You Know More About Toxic Stress in Children

If you notice any of these 5 signs of toxic stress in children, it’s important to take all of the steps necessary to improve their mental health.

Do you want to know how you can help your family thrive? Make sure you browse our blog to find more helpful tips and guides.

Cool Indoor Activities That Your Kids Will Love

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This year has forced so many of us to find ways in which we can entertain ourselves indoors. especially those who who have kids. Even the most creative of parents will have reached the end of their tether in terms of coming up with ideas which they can do in order to keep the kids entertained. One of the keys to helping the kids is understanding that they will be back to school soon and that educational indoor activities will help them to have fun whilst also preparing them for getting back to school. With this in mind, here are some ideas which you can try with your kids.

Gardening

Teaching your kids about garnering is more than just recruiting them to help keep your herb garden alive. This activity will help them in terms of understanding the important role that plants play in our lives and of course the source of food. Start with a simple pot plant and take it from seed to sprout with your kids taking responsibility.

Learning Board Games

Games ave changed over the years and whilst the computer games which we have now are often based around strategy, speed and skill traditional board games will teach your kids about much more. Board games like Monopoly or Yahtzee and Chess can really help your kids to learn something whilst they are playing and having fun.

The Night Sky

Most kids love the idea of becoming an astronaut one day and you can harness this energy and use it to teach your kids about the night sky and what it means. This will help them to begin to form an idea of what all of this is about and you can use some great apps which break down the stars and the constellations so that your kids can learn what to look for in the sky.

Science Experiments

Every action and reaction in life is based around science and there are so many incredibly fun experiments which you can do at home with them. Even something as basic as creating a volcano using coke and Mentos will fascinate them and you can find some great tutorials on YouTube which will break down what you need by way of resources in order to perform multiple science experiments. Science is always an area that kids love because they love to wonder so much.

Try out these activities with your kids to get their brains engaged once more.

Why Is Home Health So Important for Families With Kids?

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Home health is one element of general health that unfortunately tends to go by the wayside for a lot of people. It’s important that you remember to consider your home’s health with the same seriousness that you would the health of any family member. After all, your home’s health can have a serious impact on your family’s health. For families with kids, it’s even more important. Here’s how this home health checklist can be even more influential when you have kids.

Home Health Checklist
Home Health Checklist Created By:   JES

Structural Health

You need to pay close attention to your home’s structural health in general; after all, poor structural health could lead to extremely serious concerns, including complete structural failure. However, even minor structural health concerns can be more serious when you have children in the home.

Structural health often centers around your home’s foundation. A strong home foundation is definitely ideal, but there are many potential reasons for foundation concerns. These can range from issues with the soil around your home to problems regarding the initial pouring of a concrete foundation. Regardless of the problems, it’s important to fix them because structural problems can end up causing irreversible damage without a fix.

Basement Health

Do you have a basement? If you do, you might think that the most important thing for maintaining safety in your home’s basement is ensuring your kids stay out of it. True, having a child who falls down the basement stairs could be a serious problem. However, the biggest problem could actually be issues with basement waterproofing.

Basements tend to have a reputation for issues with waterproofing. This typically occurs because the basement is below the ground’s surface and has surrounding soil that can be very wet. If water enters through the basement walls and you’re unable to get rid of it, you can have a musty smell, mold, mildew, and other problems. These can seriously impact the health of young children.

Crawl Space Health

Even homes that don’t have a basement often have a crawl space. Crawl spaces are a great way for inspectors to get in and look at things like your home’s pipes and structural supports without having to dig into the home itself. However, the problem is that crawl spaces can run into the same problems as basements, oftentimes even with waterproofing problems as well.

One big problem with crawl spaces is that many people don’t think about how much of an impact crawl spaces have on the rest of the home. Sure, you probably know that your basement and your home share air with each other, but did you know that your home gets up to 50% of its air through your crawl space? If your crawl space’s air is unhealthy, your home’s air will be unhealthy, which can cause health concerns for your whole family.

Home Concrete Health

The last element of home health to pay attention to is concrete health. Almost everyone has some form of concrete around their home. You may have concrete on your driveway, in your home’s basement, on your patio, and many more areas. If this concrete isn’t healthy, you could end up with very serious overarching problems.

Trips and falls are extremely common with concrete issues. This may be because of cracked concrete, uneven concrete, or even just concrete that doesn’t have the right grip. These can be even more prominent with children, because children can trip over even very small uneven spaces between concrete slabs.

Conclusion

All home health hazards are important for any home, but this is especially true for many homes with children. If you have children, it’s important that you keep your home as safe and secure as possible for everyone’s sake. That may mean talking to a home health expert, such as a foundation repair expert, to learn more about your home health options. Remember, your entire family lives in your home. That should be reason enough to maintain its health, even if you need to call in outside help.

How to Help Your Teen Have a Great Future

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Helping your teen navigate some of the most emotional and pivotal years of their life can be a challenging task at times. Many parents struggle with finding the right balance between giving advice and telling them what to do. You know that your teen needs to be able to figure some things out on their own, however you might also feel like you know what is best for them in certain situations. While this may be true, allowing them to find their own way with your guidance, as opposed to control, is important.

The fact of the matter is that your teen is going to have an exciting future ahead of them. If you are looking for ways in which you can help them achieve all that they can and enjoy that bright future, here are a few tips to bear in mind.

Learn to Listen

When it comes to helping your teen to have a great future, one of the most important things you can do for them is to learn how to listen. It is only by listening to your teen that you will be able to better understand the vision that they have for their own future. By learning to listen, you can offer them all the assistance and guidance that they need in order to achieve the future they are after.

Listening is also the only way to know where your teen is at right now emotionally and mentally speaking. Your teen might be dealing with struggles that haven’t been apparent to you up until now. You should pay special attention when they reach out to you and try to read between the lines when they share things with you. Many teens find it difficult to be honest with their parents about the things they are dealing with, but if you let them know that you are there to listen to them then they will be more likely to open up.

If you do find that your teen is in need of more specialized help, you can then bring them to a rehab center for teens. You will never know if such a step is necessary, though, unless you learn to listen.

Help Them Plan

In order for your teen to achieve the bright future that they envision and that you want for them, they will need to take definitive steps towards it. This means that you will both need to be on the same page about what that future looks like and what needs to be done in pursuit of it.

If your ten has a specific career in mind, what sort of degree and experience are necessary to be qualified for such a career? If they don’t know yet what they want to do with their life, are there certain areas of interest that they can explore? You might consider having them shadow a professional who is already working in one of your teen’s areas of interest.

Whatever their future holds, they will need your help to plan out the right path to that future.

Sports Are Good For Children—But Injuries Can Happen

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A Clear Tradeoff

There are many positive benefits for children involved in sporting events. For one thing, they learn to work toward a goal. For another, they learn how it’s necessary to function as a team to achieve that goal. They learn discipline in the form of regular practice so certain aspects of the sports become ingrained at the subconscious level. This also involves exercise.

With sports like ice hockey, a new skill must be learned just to play the sport—you can’t play ice hockey if you can’t skate, and you can’t ice skate well enough to be a valuable team member unless you practice. Getting the balance right involves “growing” new muscles. You’ve got to have stronger ankles and leg muscles, and you get them through skating.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/child-soccer-playing-kick-613199/ 

It may take a whole season for a young child to learn skating well enough they’re able to be a valuable part of the team; that’s one of many reasons it’s good to start children on hockey early if there’s an interest, or you want to see them get good by the time they’re teenagers. But hockey isn’t the only sport which requires those who play it to learn new skills.

Swimming is similar, and many swimming sports exist. Singular sports like biking or hiking, more appropriately athletic activities, also require new skills to be learned. But regardless of the athletic activity your young ones are getting involved with, increased physicality naturally expands the risk of injury. So there’s a clear tradeoff. But as a parent, how do you manage it?

Safeguarding Children And Preserving Positive Sporting Benefits

The benefits of sports events outweigh the potential hazards; but those hazards certainly can’t be ignored. Especially with a sport like ice hockey, between “checking”, the hardness of the ice, general clumsiness, fast-flying pucks, high tempers, and general clumsiness, it’s a greater surprise if young ones sustain no injury whatever, than if they get scuffed up a bit over the regular course of the season.

What makes sense is securing the trustworthy services of a local sports medicine physician. The thing about injuries is, their recovery may require a lot of time or a little; but there are definitely best practices. Sometimes your child will pull a muscle, or dislocate something. While they’re in definite pain, with a slight adjustment they can return to practice.


Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/quarterback-american-football-sport-67701/ 

Other times, a given injury might be at a level where it’s going to take a few months for the young one to recover, and then there will be physical therapy to consider. For such situations, it makes sense to secure the services of a trusted orthopedic surgeon at Ocean County; or wherever you happen to be.

When you’ve got orthopedic or sports medicine options available prior to the start of the season, recovery happens quicker, you get the right medical attention sooner, and you can probably reduce associated costs in either surgery or therapy right off the bat. You’ll know what the doctors charge, and you’ve got time to shop around—if you prepare beforehand.

Your Child’s Sports Experience Benefits Through Preparation


Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/heart-health-family-tree-strong-3306996/ 

So there’s a mild dichotomy to consider here. On the one hand, you want to provide your young ones the best possible opportunities as regards development. Athleticism, new skills, team building, socialization, long-term planning and preparation—sports provide such outcomes in a natural, organic way that’s fun for everyone. But injury potential exists.

You can diminish associated injury impact through acquisition of proper medical professionals from the outset. Doing things this way allows you to shop around for the best medical options, preserving your bank account by helping you avoid the emergency room when possible, while simultaneously setting your children up for success in sports.

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We left our home in Sydney, Australia many moons ago in May 2012 and, other than a brief stint back in Perth for Christmas and a wedding in early 2014, we have been travelling the world nomadically ever since, running a business from our laptops and we’re here to show you how to do it!