Raising Happy Children; Learn the Secret

Are we making these mistakes with our children?

Are we hiding them in a bubble?  Over protecting them?  Holding back there Happiness?

There immune systems are failing, because we protect them from germs.  When you were a kid didn’t you drink out of a garden hose and run through the hose on a hot summer day?  We shared one soft drink with four friends, not from one bottle and no one actually died from this.  We didn’t have Play Stations, Nintendo’s, X-Boxes, no video games, not 150 channels on cable, no DVD’s, no cell phones or personal computers and no internet or chat rooms.  We were happy and it wasn’t costing our parents and arm and leg to keep us happy.

Here’s why we were

We played outside.  We experienced nature.  It saddens me when I go outside and I can’t hear the sounds of children’s laughter and play.  There is so much outside for children to experience and learn from nature, but as parents we are so busy protecting them from nature or just to busy with our own lives that it is easier to give them the computers, DVD’s and video games.  That way we know where they are and don’t have to bother, so we can do what we want.  Today’s children spend an average of five hours in front of a screen instead of being outside playing.

You don’t have to be rich to have Happy Children

Do you remember when you were a child?  If we weren’t in school we were outside playing.  We would go outside in the morning and only come in to eat lunch.  We spent hours building a go-cart out of scraps and then riding down a hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.  After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.  We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, but that was ok, because we were learning and having fun.  We were given BB guns, made up games with sticks and tennis balls.  We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house.  When little league had tryouts and we didn’t make the team, we learned to deal with the disappointment.  Parents didn’t bail us out if we broke the law.  They sided with the law.  We were happy kids; because we were experiencing life.  It didn’t cost our parents and arm and leg when it came to buying things for us, because we learned how to make things from a little bit of nothing and play with it.  We learned how to be creative.  Do you know that in the past 50 years this country has had an explosion of innovation and new ideas?  This is because as children we had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned how deal with it all.

Let the children play and experience happiness

As parents and grandparents it is time that we let the children play.  They say there are more children getting diabetes, could this be because we are not supposed to give them real sugar and not artificial sugar.  There bones are starting to get soft.  We are protecting them from the main source of vitamin D, the sun.  They are over weight, because they are not getting enough exercise, because we are protecting them from nature and what it has to offer.  We give them anything they want in the line of material objects, so we don’t have to bother with them.

With the economy the way it is, do you think it is time to go back to the basics when it comes to our children.  Let them build the go carts when there little, give them the used cars and help them learn to fix them when they won’t run. Teach them how to slid down a snow bank on an inner tube rather than an expensive sled.

Wake up people and stop and think:  “What are we really taking away from our children and what are we really giving them?”  Is happiness really in all the material and expensive products?  There will never be a better time to change our habits and thinking.

Please leave me your comment I would love to hear your input!

Debbie Dee