Children are often influenced by their parents during childhood. What parents do and how they choose to live, could represent the future of their kids. Children who regularly see their parents smoking, drinking, or eating excessively are likely to do the same, as they grow up. It is crucial for parents to realize that their kid’s development can be affected, too. Also, kids can be affected by the lack of attention and love from their parents. Raising a child in our busy modern world often makes parents overlook unhealthy behaviors so, without realizing it, they expose their kids to an environment that can affect their development. Here are some of the parental habits that affect children’s growth. 

Alcohol Abuse

Many parents think that drinking alcohol around their children won’t affect them. Generally, people who deal with alcoholism believe that “it’s not affecting anyone else”. The truth is that children who grow up around alcoholic parents are the most affected. What is “normal” for these kids? Unfortunately, they might never find out what it’s like to grow up with good examples around them to follow. Because drinking alcohol it’s a normality in some families, many children will feel confused and don’t understand why in other families, drinking is considered a bad habit. Some kids may experience parental abuse from alcoholic parents, and this can lead to fear of all angry people, as they grow up. They may be afraid of any kind of conflict, as they’ll think it can turn up into a fight at any moment

Kids that grow up with alcoholic parents can suffer from trust issues, self-judgment, and constantly seek approval from others. When kids grow up with parents that continuously lie about everything, they can develop serious problems of trust. This can affect them in adulthood, as they’ll think that trusting someone will make them suffer at some point. They’ll even struggle with romantic relationships, finding it hard to get close to others. Also, kids of alcoholic parents might think that they’re not good enough, they can be very critic with themselves about almost anything. They’re likely to become easily depressed and isolate themselves from the rest of the world. 

Smoking 

Smoking in the presence of children can be very harmful because their lungs are not completely developed at that young age. However, even a non-smoker can be affected, too. Parents who usually smoke outside can still put their children in danger, exposing them to secondhand smoke. What is secondhand smoke? It’s the smoke that comes from the tip of burning cigarettes and is inhaled by someone else other than the active smoker. Normal cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals that can be very harmful to smokers, children, but also to non-smokers. Most of these chemicals can cause cancer. Studies have shown that there is a thirdhand smoke that is also very damaging. These harmful chemicals can affect a child’s health and develop colds, respiratory problems, ear infections, headaches, eye irritation, etc. Most children become smokers in their adulthood because their parents didn’t make them believe it is a bad habit. There are many reasons why kids start smoking. Because they actually feel cool, independent, and tough. The lack of communication with their parents makes them ignore the negative effects. A major mistake that most smoker parents do is to get angry with their children when they find out they’re smoking, although they were the “source of inspiration”.

Failing to Boost Their Self Confidence

As adults, we’re often envious of children because they don’t have a care in the world but that doesn’t mean their lives are perfect in every way. Like adults, children can sometimes have low self-esteem, which can affect them later in life and prevent them from reaching their full potential. As the parent, it’s your responsibility to make sure your child loves themselves and grows into a happy, confident, balanced adult. If not alone, then with the help of a professional who specializes in children’s emotional development. For example, a child who has a stutter or a speech defect can benefit from speech therapy services to learn how to overcome this and express themselves with confidence. Children’s mental health is something you shouldn’t treat lightly because in time low self esteem can lead to more serious problems, including low school performance and difficulty in communicating. 

Unhealthy Food

“You are what you eat”, it’s a very common saying that most people agree with. However, the frequency of obesity in children has increased during the last decade. Kids who grow up with a totally unhealthy lifestyle are not only at risk of medical problems such as diabetes, heart diseases, etc. It also affects their physical growth and emotional development. Common situations in which a child can reach obesity is overeating. Unhealthy food choices can lead to medical disorders, lower self-esteem, social isolation, depression. Children develop their food preferences in the first 2 years of life. It is very important what parents choose to include in children’s meals during that period. However, not feeding them correctly can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle in adulthood. Children don’t know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food. They want to taste everything, especially sweets. Sugar is the worst enemy for the body if consumed in huge amounts. Parents who don’t set limits for their kids when eating candies and other types of unhealthy snacks should be aware that they can get easily addicted. It can be difficult to explain that some sort of food is not good for them, if parents consume it, kids will follow their example. They’ll tend to get frustrated about the fact that they’re not allowed to eat it, and they’ll start doing it behind your back. This will lead to many behavioural problems when they will grow up. It is well-known that a kid’s development can be affected in many ways by what they eat during their childhood. However, parents think that restricted foods in a child’s dieting will make them choose the healthier version, but sometimes, the opposite happens. Restricting delicious food from your kids may be the reason why they desire it even more. This could turn into a serious problem when they grow up, being more prone to develop overweight. Children whose parents barely restricted what they ate during childhood are more interested in developing a healthy lifestyle. So, many nutrition experts setting a good example by having a healthy diet yourself, explaining the importance of healthy foods in an age-appropriate way, creating fun recipes with healthy ingredients, and letting your children indulge in the occasional snack, as long as 

Parental education is the most important thing in a child’s life. Parents and siblings are role models in children’s life. They’re likely to adopt the same lifestyle their families have. Since parents are the ones with the biggest influence in a child’s life, it’s very important to be a good example.