This is not an educational nutrition post. This is just a story from bedtime with my son.
Sometimes, I have the oddest, yet amazing discussions with my little ones. Last night as I was putting Julian, my six-year-old, to bed, he stated very matter-of-factly, that for the next five days, he would be taking care of his body. I responded with a real slow, “ok… what does that mean?” He started with a story about how he had put the temperature of his bath water too hot tonight and it had been hard for his skin and that he felt bad for his body, so he was planning on taking care of his body better the next five days. He proceeded to share with me what this meant for him. Here are some of his thoughts.
- “I will eat more fruits and vegetables.” He explained to me that he knows that fruits and vegetables have things that his body really likes so he was going to try to eat more of them over the next few days.
- “I will take some walks.” He shared that he had learned in school that walking and not sitting all day is good for him so he would try to walk around more.
- “I will do some push-ups or maybe exercise with you mom.” He shared that muscles are part of his body and if he did some exercises, that would be taking care of his body too.
This started a great discussion with him about other ways he can take care of his body as well. He then added to his list:
- “I will read more” since he knows that his brain is part of his body and reading helps exercise his brain.
- “I will get a good night’s sleep” since his body (and brain) need rest every day.
- “I will put on sunscreen” since we’ve been talking this summer about how sunscreen can protect his skin.
Wanting to support him in this endeavor, I asked him if I could join him in taking care of my body too. He quickly assured me he’d help me remember to eat fruit since he knows this is my weakness. I left his room that evening feeling uplifted. I loved the view of taking care of our bodies from a child’s perspective!
I didn’t dare ask what would happen after day five since I didn’t want bedtime to last until midnight! But to my surprise, when I went to wake him up this morning, he let me know he had already started taking care of his body because he had had a good night sleep. Too cute.