As parents, we can all agree that sometimes kids just do not want to get clean. Kids are messy little storms, it’s just in their nature. However, it is our job, as their parents, to teach them how important proper hygiene is.
Cory Harow is a doctor and father, so he too, understands what it’s like with kids, and definitely understands the full aspect of just how important proper hygiene is. Teaching kids proper hygiene is just as important as them learning how to walk and talk. Let’s stop, and think for a minute. What is proper hygiene? Do we ourselves fully know and understand what it is, and what it means?
Hygiene is the practice you take to keep yourself and your body clean. Some examples of hygiene are taking showers, washing your hair, washing your hands after you use the restroom, brushing your teeth. It is also wearing deodorant, flossing and using mouthwash on top of brushing your teeth, making sure you also wash and clean your belly button too. Learned with my kids that this was something they needed to know. This is what we need to be teaching our children. We also need to show and teach them the proper ways to do things, such as how long they need to wash their hands in order to kill the germs. Another example is how long they need to brush their teeth for.
Are they going to like doing all of these things? Absolutely not. It will probably feel like chores to them, but there are ways to get them into it. You can always make it fun for them. Get creative. Play their favorite song while they brush their teeth, set a timer, and dance around with them. There’s nothing wrong with that. Cory Harow says whatever it takes to make proper hygiene more fun and less like a chore is a win-win situation. You can never go wrong while taking care of your body, teaching kids to properly take care of their body, all while having fun too. It puts a smile on everyone’s faces. Happiness is never a bad thing.
However, you need to make sure you teach them how to maintain proper hygiene. Just washing your hands correctly once isn’t what you’re looking for. You’re wanting them to learn and understand how important it is to keep their body clean. It also helps to keep them healthy. Washing away all the germs their little hands encounter, instead of accidentally putting them into their bodies, via putting their hands in their mouth. Teaching them the WHY aspect of this is just as important as showing them how. They will process and understand the why and it will make sense to them when they are old enough, just as the routine of teaching them how to properly take care of themselves will also, just become a part of their everyday life as they get older. Thanks to teaching them proper hygiene as kids, they will become adults with proper hygiene as well.