Children, The Family and Health: What it Takes to Give Children Long Life
The Hawaii Workshop: Our Distinguished Participants
It is my great honor and privilege to be here and to share with you my experience as a mother to take care of my children's health. I am not a doctor nor a psychologist. I am just a mother. As a mother, children's health is always my first priority. I am so lucky that my sons have grown up happily and healthily from their childhood.
Nowadays, our children never lack of food. However, unbalance in children's nutrition has turned out to be an urgent topic. Fast food chains are everywhere in our country. Most of children love fast food very much. There was no exception for my children. As we know well, fast food is mostly a kind of junk food and it's unfavorable to children's health. So in our family, we made disciplines for our kids. Though they enjoy having fast food, such as McDonald's or Kentucky's. I still limited them to a certain degree. Sometimes on weekend, our family would eat out with grandparents, and at that time, I didn't agree with my children to take fast food as a meal since the older generation in our country, like their grandparents, would never get used to fast food. However, once in a while, I would let them to enjoy what they like.
Soft drinks, such as Coke or 7 Up, have been so popular now in Taiwan. No family cannot afford to buy some soft drinks back home and provide them all day long, especially in summer time. So, a lot of children take soft drinks as the only drink. Water seems nothing to them. I really object it and I found a tip to avoid their indulging in the soft drink. I usually make a box of icy cubes in the freezer and also keep a bottle of icy water in the refrigerator. When my children are thirsty, they would drink icy water first and then to put an icy cube in their mouth. It seems a fun to get rid of the thirst.
In summer vacation, I would encourage my children to join summer camp. Most of the activities they joined were outdoor and sports ones, for example, swimming, basketball, ping-pong, and badminton. They could play together with pals at their age, not only training their sports skills but also improving health. And besides, they could make a lot of friends in the camps.
Nature is the mother of all creatures, of course including our human beings, but as urban civilization is well developed, we people gradually turn away from nature. My husband and I love nature and we take every chance to get close to it. So, we would like our children to go to nature, to hiking, biking, and camping were our favorite outdoor activities when my sons were still kids. The fresh air and good exercise would help strenghten children's health. They could also further recognize the existed close relationship with nature.
Man's character could be formed from their childhood. While physical health is undoubtedly essential to children, emotional health can hardly be neglected. I always taught my kids that they should be kind and compassionate to others and since it's a human society, how to respect and get along well with people is certainly fundamental. Besides, one of the most important efforts for me as a parent is that I should behave myself and therefore I could be set up as a model for my children to learn in the family.
Children's health is always a focus in a family as well as in a society. As a mother, I do very care about it.
Last Modified: November 29, 2002