As a parent or guardian, it can be difficult to know whether or not you are doing everything you can to ensure your loved ones are happy and healthy on a daily basis.
In order to do so, it may benefit you to take a number of steps towards ensuring your home is a comfortable space for everyone to enjoy.
Continue reading to familiarise yourself with a number of handy tips and tricks for a happier, healthier home.
1. Maintain a healthy work-life balance
If you are rarely in your home, it can be difficult to know who spends time there and how often they do so. By maintaining a healthy work-life balance, however, you can spend more time with your loved ones and find out how they enjoy spending their time at home.
This is, in the simplest of terms, the division of your time between being at work and spending time with your family.
This can allow you to create a warm, comforting atmosphere and design and manage a space that the entire family will be rescheduling their social life for.
If you are accustomed to working long hours for a number of days at a time, maintaining a healthy work-life balance for the first time can allow you to strengthen your relationship with your family members and wield greater control over your life.
2. Set boundaries
If you are looking for a happier, healthier home, you should set boundaries. This is commonly done to protect children from harm and danger, but it is important to also explain why you are doing so.
By neglecting this key step, you risk them refusing to follow instructions and rebelling as they reach teenagerhood. For example, if you are forced to pull your child away from a dangerous situation, such as a hot stove or an open fire, you must explain why you have done so.
It is common knowledge that children are generally uncooperative when commanded by their parents with no additional information to support their decision. As a result, this can allow them to identify danger in similar situations in the future and know that, by proceeding, they may not only hurt themselves but also others around them.
3. Make decisions together
If you continually make decisions as parents or without the input of your children, they may feel as if their opinion doesn’t matter.
But by making decisions together, you can ensure you are making changes that will benefit the entire family and encourage greater cooperation and collaboration as a family unit.
This can range from which local restaurant to visit for dinner and where to jet off to on your next family holiday to what the best health insurance provider is for you.
Before you make a long-term decision like this, however, you must do your research and choose a top-rated provider, such as Switch Health. It may seem like an insignificant step, but it can have a dramatic impact on your relationship with your children in the long run
As your children edge closer towards adolescence, it is normal for them to test the limits of boundaries you have previously set for them.
By sitting down and having an honest conversation and negotiating with them when it comes to discipline, however, they are less likely to disobey you and are far more likely to respect you as a parent going forward.
With greater freedom and flexibility and fewer restrictions to test the limits of, you may also notice a considerable difference in their behaviour at home.
4. Promote communication
As a family, communication is implied. But if a happier, healthier home is your number one goal, there are steps you can take to improve communication between you and your loved ones. This is especially important during times of grief and hardship.
By talking things through, you can encourage family members to open up and discuss how they are feeling and reassure them that they will be listened to and responded to in a sympathetic and constructive manner.
If you and your family tend to avoid communication at all costs, this particular step may prove difficult. By promoting communication early on, you can also encourage your children to put their feelings into words if and when necessary and come to you when they are feeling sad, happy, or confused. If they are included in daily conversations, they are also less likely to hide crucial information from you.
5. Spend quality time with your family
If you are a busy family, it can be difficult to come to a mutual agreement and decide when to spend quality time with your loved ones. For example, you and your spouse may work on a full-time basis and your children may be enrolled in school as well as a number of extracurricular activities.
As if this wasn’t enough, there are also several social lives to factor into the equation. If you are struggling, it may benefit you to curate a family planner to allow everyone to familiarise themselves with one another’s schedule at a glance.
By doing so, you can schedule an afternoon to spend quality time with your family as a one-off or on a regular basis. This can enable you to catch up, discuss important issues, and even just share a laugh.
This can be done at home or on the go by planning a family dinner, a picnic, a road trip, a movie night, an arts and crafts session, a trip to the beach, or even a family holiday. If your children are nearing teenagerhood, they may protest at first.
But by choosing an activity the entire family will enjoy, they will feel valued and respected and are less likely to feel like an outsider.
6. Have fun
There are several aspects of running a home that require a serious approach. But there are also several that allow for a little fun.
By having fun if and when you can, you are more likely to run a happier, healthier family home for you and your guests to enjoy.
By doing so, you can be reassured when you are apart that you are doing everything in your power to ensure they are happy at home and are unlikely to prefer spending their time elsewhere.
This is especially important for your children as they grow older. By encouraging them to have fun, they will view your home as a place where they can enjoy spending time alone, with loved ones, or with friends. A happy, healthy family is key to maintaining a happy, healthy home.
7. Declutter your space
As well as taking steps to strengthen your relationship with your loved ones, you must also ensure your home is in the best condition it can be.
In order to do so, you must declutter your space. Whether it is overrun with junk or may just benefit from a thorough clean, this can have a direct impact on the health and happiness of your family going forward.
If you are looking to build a happier, healthier home, there are a number of steps you can take as a family.
For example, it may benefit you to maintain a healthy work-life balance, set boundaries, make decisions together, promote communication, spend quality time with your family, have fun, and declutter your space.
