The secret to raising a happy child

Given the importance of childhood happiness as an indicator of life quality, are you looking for ways to raise joyful children? Do you want to help your child build self-confidence, satisfaction, and a sense of personal worth?
Every parent wants to raise happy and healthy children. When it comes to preserving our children’s health, we try to put all our effort into it. However, raising healthy and happy children in today’s technology-driven world is challenging. Maintaining mental health is one of the most significant factors in the healthy development of children. It helps children develop positive social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and communication skills, providing a foundation for better mental health and well-being in the future.
Below, we explore some key factors that help raise happier children.

Eating Meals Together as a Family

A happy child eats at least one meal—breakfast, lunch, or dinner—with their family willingly each day.
Living in the modern age with busy schedules challenges parents when it comes to sharing meals together. However, research across fields—from psychology to chronic disease prevention—shows that family meals serve as a gateway to establishing healthy behavioral patterns in children’s lives.
The important impact of eating together not only encourages kids to consume healthier foods but studies have also shown other benefits such as reduced stress, improved mental health, stronger family connections, increased happiness, and more.
The sense of security and unity that comes from family meals helps transform children into healthy, spirited adults. Frequent family dinners positively influence children’s happiness and can help prevent issues such as eating disorders, alcohol and drug use, violent behavior, depression, and generally delinquent behavior later in life.

How to Get More Out of Family Meals

To maximize the benefits of family meals, you can follow these guidelines:

• Turn off the TV, radio, mobile phones, and other electronic devices during lunch or dinner.
• Use meal times to engage in verbal and eye contact with your children.
• Enjoy constructive conversations during meals.
• Talk about your children’s free time activities and show interest in their daily lives.
• Be an active listener and make sure your child learns to listen as well.

Adequate Sleep

Sufficient sleep is one of the essential factors for a healthy life and has a significant impact on human health and well-being. Sleep, as a fundamental pillar for the mental and physical health of children, plays a vital role in their mental and physical development. Besides its positive effect on happiness, research has shown that sleep considerably influences alertness, concentration, cognitive performance, mood, and flexibility. Therefore, improving the quality and duration of sleep has a profound effect on individuals’ quality of life and health.
The amygdala, one of the main emotional centers in our nervous system, plays a crucial role in the process of perceiving emotions, especially in recognizing feelings like anger and fear, and significantly affects our immediate emotional reactions.
On the other hand, the prefrontal cortex is involved in more advanced cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and flexibility. This part of the brain participates in activities like conversation, reasoning, and time management. When we experience quality nighttime sleep, the prefrontal cortex controls the amygdala. Conversely, when our brain does not get enough rest, we secrete stress hormones that weaken the influence of the prefrontal cortex and simultaneously enhance the amygdala.
In fact, at these times, the amygdala dominates over the prefrontal cortex, making it difficult to process emotions and produce balanced responses. This condition can lead to inappropriate reactions, depression, and difficulties in processing emotions in a healthy and happy way.
Four-year-old children need at least 9 to 10 hours of sleep per day. Although there is some variation in views about sleep, it should be noted that the need for sleep depends on individuals’ physiological and genetic characteristics. Generally, younger children need more sleep, and with increasing age, the sleep requirement becomes more balanced.

How to know if your child is getting enough sleep?

You can tell by your child’s daily activities and mood whether they have had enough sleep or not. If your child is cranky or irritable for some reason, this might be a sign of insufficient sleep. Just as lack of sleep can affect adults’ decision-making and physical performance, insufficient sleep causes fatigue and bad moods in children. Therefore, sleep deprivation can impact concentration, task completion, learning, and social interactions.
There is a close connection between sleep and happiness. Research by scholars at the University of Warwick in the UK has shown that improving sleep quality gives us a feeling of happiness and satisfaction, similar to winning a game. However, one cannot ignore the considerable impact of sleep deprivation on the mood and behavior of both ourselves and our children.

Suggested article: Fear of the dark in children

Social Connection

Previous research has shown that the health of family activities is related to the happiness of children and adolescents. It seems that self-confidence plays a fundamental role in the formation of children’s social identities. A happy child is someone who establishes social connections earlier than peers and does not avoid social interaction. This indicates that self-confidence is essential for a child to participate in their community.
Children with strong social and emotional skills tend to have higher self-confidence. Self-confidence is linked to other essential personality traits in early development stages. Scientists believe self-confidence is one of the mental tools children use to create a sense of identity and belonging to social groups.
Being happy is closely related to self-confidence. This begins in toddlers from 18 to 24 months when they want to gain independence. We should help them achieve as much independence as possible without harming themselves or others. Although parents may be tempted to solve every challenge their children face, stepping back and allowing children to solve their own problems can strengthen their skills and boost their self-confidence.

Let’s Be Supportive of Our Children

All of us, as parents, lead busy and stressful lives and face endless worries. However, it is clear that one of the most important things we must do is to stop for a moment and be supportive of our child. Research over the past decade highlights the connection between childhood affection and health and happiness in the future.

In 2015, a study at the University of Notre Dame showed that children who received affection from their parents were happier as adults. Unconditional parental love can make children emotionally happier and less anxious. Parental support plays a very important role in strengthening their happiness. Parents who accompany their children through challenges motivate them to face unpleasant situations and learn from their experiences. This process includes accompanying them in efforts to reach goals, encouraging them upon success, and supporting them during failures.

Parents who trust their children and provide positive and respectful feedback can help create a supportive environment for their children’s happiness and self-confidence. This type of parenting always leads to a lasting and strong bond between parents and children, which ultimately promotes higher levels of happiness and confidence in children.

Watching Television

It is important for parents to understand the potential negative effects of excessive television watching on their children’s health as well as their ability to form healthy relationships with friends and family.
The connection between children’s happiness and minimal television watching plays a vital role in their mental health and joyful development. Spending too much time watching TV can lead to burnout, decreased social activities, and reduced interpersonal interactions, all of which affect children’s mood and happiness.
Do you think children today are more focused on recreational activities than kids in the past century? Were children in the previous century waiting for the invention of television to fill their time? In any case, it seems the number of recreational opportunities for children has decreased. The reality is that there are much better alternatives to television for children. Watching less TV can create unique opportunities for children, including creative play, physical activities, and direct interaction with family and friends. These varied opportunities and experiences can increase happiness and creativity and strengthen children’s social connections. Therefore, reducing TV time and choosing physical activities and real interactions can greatly contribute to children’s happiness and healthy development.

Movement is the Foundation of Growth

The more active you are, the more growth you will experience. This fact applies to children as well. Today, with technological advances and increasing urbanization, physical activity has become an essential need for children. Since busy city streets are not considered safe places for play, it is necessary to pay attention to other ways to help children release energy and develop physically.
Research shows that movement and physical activity have a strong impact on children’s intelligence development, vitality, and growth. Increasing physical activity in children not only improves their physical health but also positively affects their cognitive and social abilities.
Therefore, as parents and caregivers, we have the responsibility to take our children to appropriate places for activity and play. Encouraging children to move, especially in open environments like parks, not only helps them release energy but also promotes better intellectual growth and vitality.
As research has shown, physical activity reduces depression in both children and adults and helps achieve proper mental and physical health. Hence, the importance of maintaining movement and physical activity in the daily lives of families and communities is clearly evident.

Pursuing Goals

A child who feels secure, calm, and has strong self-confidence is very diligent and persistent in carrying out their tasks and activities. They have a lot of motivation and energy to participate in games, meet friends, or even complete their homework. For example, if you don’t feel well today and don’t feel like going shopping, you probably postpone it. But when you feel good, you take care of it and follow through.
This concept is very important for children as well, especially when they are lively and eager to engage in their activities. When you notice that your child is not pursuing anything specific, you should feel concerned.