Set A Good Example: Do Parents’ Attitudes To Healthcare Affect Their Kids?

It’s no secret that bringing up a child is a great responsibility. From the day they are born to the day they leave home, much of your child’s life will be shaped by yours. For this reason, it’s not at all unusual for children to mirror their parents.

There does remain some debate, however, surrounding the weight of smaller issues. While the matters which make up the larger parts of our personality – such as our political views and our sense of humour – are often traceable back to our parents, it’s not always so easy to decide when it comes to the smaller things.

With this in mind, it’s worth lending some thought to matters like healthcare. The way in which we choose to look after ourselves and our more general thoughts about healthcare are important aspects of life. As parents, it is therefore important for us to understand if our attitudes towards healthcare affect our kids.

The importance of being healthy

 Each of us has a huge amount of control over the state of our own health. We can decide what we eat and how often we exercise. While there are always sure to be illnesses that we can do nothing about, more often than not we are responsible for our own health. It follows that good parents will be keen to show their children the importance of staying healthy, as well as the responsibility that they hold over their health.

There’s a good chance that having a proactive attitude towards visiting health centres and trained professionals as well as engaging with people like the benenden charitable trust, will demonstrate to our children that health is a priority.

Diet

 Of course, the food we eat plays a large role in determining our physical wellbeing. It’s also the case that the food we feed our children tends to be the food they grow up enjoying and, therefore, choosing to make for themselves when they leave home.

If we are able to highlight the importance of healthy eating to our kids as they grow up, they have a better chance of adopting a healthy diet when they are older.

Scientists around the world are continuing to undertake research that draws links between parenting and the way in which children grow up. Attitudes to healthcare are likely to fit into this as part of a wider trend.