Top 5 Bad Summer Habits Your Child Should Break Today

Time to Get in Shape Before School Starts Back

Hot summer season could be the most preferred fun-filled holiday time for most naughty kids out there. After the school gates are shut for a short vacation, kids are ready to feel free, relaxed, forget all about their homework and heavy school bags, and switch to everyday play mode under the scorching heat of the summer sun. Hence, parents should take extra care to protect their little ones from getting addicted to unnecessary habits that can affect their academic performance as well as their mental health and well-being in the long run.

Top 5 Bad Summer Habits Your Child Should Break Today

If you have a little starver, night owl, gadget addict, food junkie, or super slob at home, you need to take immediate steps to make them a self-disciplined kid before the new academic year. However, its never too late or never to early to end these five common bad summer habits before school reopens after summer vacation.

1. Skipping Breakfast in the Morning (Starver)

Morning breakfast is an important meal of the day it can boost your child's overall health and well-being. Eating a well-balanced breakfast in the morning can keep your kids energetic throughout the day. It can also help them concentrate better and keep their mind fresh and sharp. Skipping the morning meal can ideally make kids obese and overweight. Offering an attractive and appetizing breakfast plate can definitely grab your little eater's attention.

Every child likes to spend more time playing than eating. So, parents should brush up their mind and try out some simple and creative kid-friendly breakfast recipes such as toast with peanut butter, cereal with fruit, smoothies, sweet potato toast, chicken sandwich, cheesy quesadillas, bread omelet, and vegetable kathi rolls. Therefore, school or no school is not a matter when it comes to eating, so, make sure your young scholars get back into the habit of eating a healthy breakfast every day.

2. Staying Up Too Late at Night (Night Owl)

Kid’s bedtime often goes haywire during summer holidays. Most kids stay up late by watching movies with family and friends, surfing the internet and chatting through social media networking apps such as Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram. Parents will have to watch out because being a night owl can affect your child's daily sleep habits. Lack of sleep can make kids feel tired the entire day, thereby making them more sedentary, overweight, and obese.

Too much exposure to the blue light emitted by these electronic devices can ultimately ruin your child's good night sleep, so parents should also make sure that kids do not spend more time on their mobile phones, computers, and laptops before bedtime.

On the other hand, sleeping in the afternoon and staying awake during the night can also be more harmful to a child's cognitive development, it will make it harder to navigate to their routine school schedule. However, repeating the set of structured healthy habits throughout the year, especially even during vacation times can always keep them on track.

3. Too Much Screen Time (Gadget Addict)

Today's touchscreen technology has set the world at our fingertips. Children often fill their free time in the summer with extra screen time and use of electronic devices such as smartphones, laptops, televisions, iPads, and computers. Spending too much time on these digital devices can make kids more sedentary, thereby putting them at a higher risk of developing obesity.

Too much screen time can also affect your child's eyesight. Previous studies have also found that young children who spend more time with screens do not get enough sleep thereby affecting their concentration, thinking skills, and memory. Thus, limiting screen time to 1-2 hours a day could be the best way to break your child’s screen addiction.

Parents need to make sure that your little one spends less time with electronic gadgets and uses their leisure time sensibly by engaging in active sports such as running, jogging, football, cricket, kho-kho, and other creative and memory-boosting activities such as crossword puzzles, sudoku, board games, drawing, and painting. Hence, reducing sedentary screen time can improve both physical and mental well-being in children.

4. Binging on Junk Food (Food Junkie)

During summer vacation, kids overindulge on junk foods and unhealthy sugary drinks such as sodas and other fizzy drinks, which may drag them straight towards excessive weight gain. Eating too many processed foods and sweet foods that contain a high amount of salt and sugar can affect your child's overall health and well-being - putting them at a higher risk of developing obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension) in later life. Therefore, it is important to get them back on track to eat more healthily by avoiding unhealthy packaged snacks and highly processed foods.

So, hurry up, it's not too late, start swapping out those unhealthy deep-fried foods and processed snacks such as chips and barbecues for healthier options such as juicy fruits, smoothies, frozen yogurt, soups, sandwich, sprout salads, roasted makhanas (fox nuts), and cut veggies.

5. Making Your House Look Messy (Super Slob)

Summer holidays can allow children to play all day. Playtime is important in a child’s life after studying for a long time. However, most parents insist on their kids to play indoors during hot summer noontime to protect their little ones from a wide range of heat-related illness such as heat stroke, heat rashes, boils, prickly heat, and severe dehydration.

On the other hand, too much indoor play often makes your house messy with toys and papers spread all over the room. Sometimes, if you have a little artist at home no wonder the walls and floors in your house will turn dirty with splash and spills of paints.

So, parents take time to train your kids on the importance of having a clean home. As a first step, teach them to pick up their toys, make their beds, arrange their wardrobe neatly and cleanup the walls and floors at the end of the day. Keeping things in the right place, and organizing the house could make them a more responsible person as they grow and don't forget to appreciate your little one after cleaning the house. Praising and appreciating kids for good habits can make them happy and motivate them to do more good deeds to become a better person.

Hence, if you find your young scholar clinging to any of these bad summer habits just take a deep breath and put a full stop immediately by replacing them with some highly productive habits before school starts. So, hurry up, let's get organized for back-to-school with a bunch of new good habits.