Generally, children flourish in a predictable environment where daily routines such as departures, arrival, mealtimes, feeding, toileting, diapering, and sleeping are dealt by caregivers only.
These daily routines make the children learn about others and about themselves that give them a sense of sensitivity, caring and warmth feeling from the caregivers and teachers.
Because the daily routines help the children to behave appropriately, it is necessary to teach proper daily routines to your children.
Before you start teaching daily routines to your child, it is important to develop a bond of attachment between you and your child. The way you handle daily routines is important for children. With this only, you can create a trust in your child [Developing bond with your child].
For example, for some tasks like diapering and feeding your child, you need to communicate with your child such that they should trust you and should feel comfortable with you. This is called as attachment or a bond of trust.
Tips to develop the bond of trust with your child
- Develop patience and practice listening to your child. You need to pay attention on what your child is talking.
- Even though your child is calm and not talking to anyone, you keep on talking to your child.
- Spend time with your child. Do not rush with your daily routines. With this, they feel secure.
- Hold your child at the time of bottle-feeding. With this, you can develop warm and nurturing relationship with them.
- By doing such things, they will start trusting you and now you can teach them their daily routines comfortably.
The most important daily routine that your child needs to learn is toileting. It is a social skill that every child needs to learn. Most of the children learn around their second year of age.
It takes time for the children to learn the process of toileting, therefore do not rush your child into developing the process of toileting [Potty training tips].
It is best to dress your child in clothing that has elastic waistbands, with which he/she can remove the cloth without anyone’s help for toileting. Make your child have a positive and relaxed experience.
Do not disappoint your child when they are not successful. Tell them to wash the hands carefully after each attempt.
Next important daily routine for your child is eating. Since most of the children prefer familiar food, you try to encourage them and make a taste of a variety of different items, but do not force them to do so.
The other most important daily routine is napping. This is very challenging for every parent. Create the environment for your child to take a nap, but don’t force them to take a nap. Leave this up to your child whether to sleep or not [Tips for sleeping problems].
Apart from the above, it is important to build these daily routines into the children’s schedule like eating at the particular time daily, sleeping at the same time, etc. It helps your children to develop regular routine.
