This self-love routine for children post is sponsored by BabbleBoxx.
It's a priority for me to not only teach my children about empathy, but to show them first-hand what self-love looks like. While self-love sounds simple, it's actually something we should be actively looking to achieve.
After a lot of trial and error and self-study, I've discovered that one key way to develop a love of self is through a daily routine.
Developing an enjoyable routine is a great way to jump start a journey of self-love not only for mothers but for children too. Here's how you can begin:
Tips for Developing a Self-Love Routine that Works
The concept of routines for a child's happiness isn't something new. So, I'm sure you may be thinking, “teach me something I don't already know”. Have you heard of creating a routine not only for predictability and structure, but to teach children self-love at an early age?
As a child who experienced a lot of self-doubt, which poured into adulthood, I wish my mother had showed me the importance of loving myself fully. It's never too late to instill these things into our children, so here are a few tips to consider when developing a routine that works for your family:
- Begin with yourself. It's important to practice what you preach, as they say. Show your children what it means to love oneself by treating yourself with kindness and respect.
- Create individual routines. It's extremely important that we focus on each individual child when creating these self-love routines. Every child's need is different so we should structure this around them.
For example, if your child has a great sense of humor, you want to incorporate that into their individual routine. If you have an emotionally sensitive child, be delicate with your planning. - A natural progression is key. The goal is to build a family full of confident individuals who use self-love as a shield for life's critics. However, we cannot force this upon anyone. As mothers, our role is to teach and guide our children, allowing them to naturally build a certainty of self.
Now that we know where we are going with this, let's jump into how to get these routines planned:
How to Develop a Self-Love Routine for Mothers
Teaching self-love has to begin with showing our children how it's done. Before you instill a routine in your babies, you have to know what it feels like to love yourself. Think of this as gaining wisdom before passing it down to the generations that come after you.
If you are a mother with anxiety, I would first recommend checking out this morning routine to combat anxiety. After, you'll be able to weave some of those ideas into these.
1. Do something nice for yourself within the first hour of waking.
This starts your day on a positive mental note and makes you feel worthy of nice things.
Make a cup of coffee. Watch TikTok for 30 minutes. Take a hot shower. Cook yourself a huge breakfast. Sleep in. Put on your favorite lipstick.
2. Include personal hygiene in your morning and evening routine.
It's so important to take care of yourself. When you feel clean and look clean, you feel good about yourself. I recommend incorporating products into your routine that will make you feel more confident.
Two products I use in my routine are serums from the Skincare from Vichy: LiftActiv 15% Pure Vitamin C Serum (to brighten and even my skin tone) and LiftActiv Supreme H.A. Wrinkle Corrector: (to reduce my fine-lines and wrinkles).
Being that Vichy products are full of 15 minerals and dermatologist recommended, I feel safe using them and I feel confident in seeing my skin smooth and glowing!
While you're at it, shave, deep-condition your hair, paint your nails, and do all those little things that add to your confidence each day. Whatever makes you think, “Wow, I feel pretty today.”
3. Move your body.
Staying active is not only important for your overall body health, but it's great for your mental health. Moving your body instantly makes you feel good. You're getting the energy flowing and giving your body the love you so deeply deserve.
Here are a few ways to move your body daily:
Take a walk. Yoga. Exercise. Dancing. Playing outside with the kids. Hiking. Exploring a downtown area. Walking nature trails. Swimming.
4. Use alone-time or quiet-time for healing and exploration.
Even if you only have 5 minutes to yourself, it's a great time to work on your insides. This can be in the form of meditation, journaling, or reading a good self-improvement book. Giving yourself this quality time is perfect for unearthing parts of you that you've been too afraid to see. This is where breakthroughs happen!
5. Schedule your regular doctor visits.
It's also so important that we, as mothers, show up for our routine doctor visits. Knowing we are in good health physically, is a major confidence boost. Self-love is taking care of yourself from the inside out.
6. Use products that bring you joy!
One thing that always brings me inner-joy is using products that I love. I encourage you to surround yourself with things that make you smile. It can be something you wear that is super cute, a face mask that you splurged on, or even something you bought for the kids, that's really for you.
For me, it's the rainbow cardigan that I rarely wear. It's the velvet headband that makes me feel like I stepped right out of the 90s. My crystal necklace and my rock-band sneakers.
It's also my Lug Via 2 Convertible Tote Bag. I use this as my diaper bag, my purse, and my overnight bag at times. I get so giddy when I'm toting this versatile bag around because it's so stylish and spacious. I'm always so impressed with how much I can fit in this bag for my little family outings. Plus, I can wear it as a tote bag, backpack (with hideaway straps when not in-use), or a crossbody.
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How to Develop a Self-Love Routine for Children
After you've got a healthy routine going for yourself, you can develop a self-love routine for children. I personally love using as many toys, tools, and resources as I can for children because I know they respond well to a variety of things.
If you have young children, these ideas could be extremely useful. As your children grow older, you can have conversations and teach them with real-life examples of their past and present. If you have little ones at home with you, here are some great ways to help jump-start their journey of loving oneself:
1. Start their morning with choices.
Giving your children choices is a perfect way for them to build confidence. This allows them a little bit of independence, which helps children to gain trust in their own decisions. Some examples of this can be:
Allowing children to choose what they wear. Giving children choices of what they want for breakfast. Choosing a toy to play with.
2. Encourage imaginative play.
You'll love watching your kids use their imaginations! Whether it be with a toy, box, or an invisible car – let your children pretend in whatever way they want! Play along with them to help build confidence.
3. Learning is KEY.
Likewise, learning is a way to build confidence in children. Teach them about anything and everything. Use a variety of activities for learning: toys, physical play, music, drawing, crafts, etc.
4. Practice affirmations.
I've practiced affirmations with my toddler ever since he first started talking. I wanted him to not only hear all these wonderful things about himself but to actually believe them. You can teach your children to speak affirmations to themselves daily and also teach them when to say these things.
For example, “I am brave!” can be particularly helpful when your child is doing something for the first time, like starting school.
5. Identify feelings.
An inability to express emotions will cause a lot of meltdowns and tantrums. These are inevitable. However, the use of emotion-identify toys and books are a great way to help children (and parents) communicate those feelings.
In particular, I love the Hoppy & Poppie Gift Box, which is an emotional intelligence gift set for kids! These emotional intelligence books and toys are perfect for teaching children about their emotions. With 6 emotions wrist bands and Hoppy & Poppie plush toys, your children can identify exactly what they are feeling. They can choose an emotion and place it inside the zippered pouch inside Hoppy & Poppie.
The gift box also includes board books to help children become more self-aware and comfortable expressing their emotions. The “Not So Scary” board book is hands-on with sliders to help change the characters' emotions.
Use code “FRIEND10” for a 10% discount on any purchase at HoppyPoppie.com
You can also use arts & crafts as emotion-building activities
6. Teach something new or practice a skill.
Learning and strengthening skills is huge for our children. Our job as parents is to guide and teach our children. When your child is learning something new, keep practicing it with them until they are so confident, they want to show off what they can do!
This is effective for children of all ages and can be practiced as a part of a daily routine. Even your babies can practice fine motor skills, like grabbing and shaking, with a toy like the Lil’ Squish Jellyfish from Baby Banana. This toy is also a teether, so babies can enjoy the rattle sound and can feel confident in the easy-grip shapes.
7. Teach good hygiene to your children.
Allowing your children to wash themselves sometimes, can be really fun for both of you. This teaches kids that they are capable fo accomplishing a very important task. Additionally, you're actively teaching them how to take care of their precious little bodies.
When choosing things for your children, offer them safe products, such as the Baby Magic Cleansing Gel + Lotion. These products are gentle and dermatologist-tested. Plus, they smell pretty nice and make your children feel incredibly soft.
Get these at Walmart or Target!
Tips for Successfully Creating Routines for Children
- Respect the child's time and space.
- Allow children to make mistakes.
- Don't do or say things you regret.
- Teach your children the importance of using products that are safe and effective.
Noleo Diaper Care (as pictured above) is a perfect example of using a brand you can trust with your children. They care about comfort for your children and only use non-toxic ingredients in their diaper care products. The 3-in-1 diaper care is even an effective cloth diapering cream.
Additionally, the organic cloth pads make diaper changing easy for moms who care about comfort but are also in a hurry! - Make room for changes and improvements.
- Always acknowledge good behavior and growth.
Motherhood isn't easy and we often feel like we're failing. That's why I always encourage other mothers to spend a little more time filling their own cups and fulfilling the emotional needs of their children. The world needs more compassion and empathy. It starts with mothers and carries on through our children.
Creating routines of self-love for everyone in the family is a perfect way to raise our future leaders.
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