Top Tips
Why is Routine Important for Children?
Having a routine helps to bring consistency and comfort to a child’s life, as well as providing a sense of normality. Children tend to fear the unknown, and while change is important in life, it can also create a lot of added stress for children. Routine helps to reduce this stress and brings with it a feeling of security.
Having a routine:
- Teaches a child the importance of time management as well as helping them to follow a schedule. For example, if your child goes to bed at the same time every night, then they will soon begin to learn that the hour before bedtime is their time to begin winding down.
- Helps to set expectations. Rather than having a debate at dinner time about who has the job to set the table, try having a rota (written or pictures) of whose turn it is.
- Gives a child confidence and independence. If a child has a visual timetable with everyday tasks, even if it’s something as small as brushing their teeth before they go to bed, they will learn to do this themselves rather than having to be told, which will instil a sense of independence and pride.
- Creates habits. Whether it’s putting their toys away or completing their homework before dinner time, having a routine in place helps to create these habits in children and teaches them how to manage their time.
- Helps children to get excited about what’s coming up. If children know what to expect, such as watching a film together one evening or making pizzas together at the weekend, then they have something to look forward to.
Finally, and perhaps the greatest benefit for having a routine for children, is that a routine offers stability and something constant for children when times are often uncertain, uncontrollable, and unpredictable. While we cannot control what is happening outside of our homes and in the world around us, we can control what happens within it. When you create a routine, you help to create a sense of normality in a child’s life and ease the stress of the outside world.
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Feeling lonely is something that all of us can experience at any point and it can have a huge impact on our wellbeing. It’s important to remember that these feelings can pass and that there are lots of ways we can help each other too.
Fancy a cuppa? Fancy a walk? Sometimes reaching out to each other with as little as three words can make a big difference.
As part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are encouraging people to ‘Lift Someone Out of Loneliness’ by taking a simple action to help someone who may be feeling lonely. If we do this regularly, we can all help to lift each other up.
https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/lifes-challenges/loneliness/
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