Kids need to feel secure and loved. Here are some tips for parents to shower physical affection on their kids.
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Credit: The New Yorker
Don’t be too busy to hold and hug your child. These little touches may seem simple and insignificant, but it means a lot to them. This is the simplest way for parents to create a strong bond with their children and promote a healthy relationship.
Physical touch can be holding hands, a small hug, patting on your child’s back, etc. These help them to feel safe and loved. They grow up to be a loving social being.
Take the initiative
Don’t wait for your kids to come up for hugs, touches and kiss, instead take an initiative. When you are being physically affectionate with your kids regularly, it helps them to have a strong emotional bonding with you. This further decreases different challenging behavioural situations and disciplining them becomes simple.
Snuggling
Snuggling and cuddling help parents create physical connections with their children. As they grow up and become independent, these opportunities naturally diminish, and parents need to make extra effort to connect with them. For example, give an arm wrapping when your kid is taking online hobby classes. You will find numerous options available at platforms like Yellow Class.
Play together
With online kids classes, you can get sufficient time to spend with them. Utilize their free time in playing games like horsey rides, piggyback rides or wrestling. These games help to promote positive brain development and bring kids closer to you. It is the best way to keep families close together in a fun and physical way.
Touch Base
These beginnings are quite natural for young children who instinctively take time in exploring the world away from parents, and come back for safety in their arms to reconnect physically. This happens with older children as well. As a parent, let your child lie on your lap and enjoy hair strokes, or cuddle them while reading together.
Touch – A reactive process
When a touch is a proactive strategy advised to parents for loving their child, it also acts as a reactive process. Touching helps to calm down and reinforce an emotional bond between parents and children. When a child touches his parents in a lovely manner, the chemical balance in their brains starts restoring.
Hug
Give a hug when your child is throwing a fit, instead of screaming along with them. A hug gives a warm feeling when their minds are suffering from emotional chaos. It can restore the chemical balance in his brain. Physical touch from parents can calm down the immature ones lovingly.
Go a step beyond verbal communications
Add an element of touch to your verbal conversations. This means parents can pat their child’s back while making them understand what mistakes are made. Or, they can place a gentle hand on his shoulder to assure that you are with him whatever happens.
Avoid unnecessary touch
If your child is becoming overly stimulated due to too much touch or feels irritating, take them to a quiet place. Allow them to play or work without having the risk of being unnecessarily touched by siblings or other family members.
Deep pressure
Sometimes children love deep pressure, as it gives them a welcoming sensation and helps to relax their minds. For example, an oversized bean bag chair, ball pits, or weighted blankets helps a child to receive sensations that they crave. Also, these help their mind and body to communicate more efficiently.
A simple touch from parents can have a positive impact on young minds. A parent shouldn’t search for reasons to hug their child.
