You have probably heard of mindfulness by now, but are you aware of the benefits of mindfulness for preschool parents?

Though an old concept, dating back thousands of years to ancient Buddhist practices, there has been a huge rise in interest in mindfulness in the press and popular culture in recent years.

Mindfulness is often confused with meditation. The practices are related, but not the same.

Mindfulness can help people of all walks of life, including parents. Let’s look at how.

So what is mindfulness?

Mindfulness, according to the American Psychological Association, is

“…a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait. While it might be promoted by certain practices or activities, such as meditation, it is not equivalent to or synonymous with them.”

Mindfulness has been shown to help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, while helping to encourage positive emotions and improve quality of life.

These benefits are relevant to parenting, too.

Mindfulness and parenting

The fact that mindfulness reduces stress, anxiety, and depression is a good enough reason for it to benefit parenting. Stress and depression are strongly linked to negative parenting, while children whose parents have mood or anxiety disorders are more likely to suffer from them themselves.

But that’s not all. The practices of mindfulness, such as acting with awareness, observing, and non-judging of inner experiences, each have their benefits to the way you interact with your child.

Acting with awareness, meaning being fully attentive and conscious of the experiences in the present moment, is essential to good parenting. That’s because if you are truly present in the moment when interacting with your child, you can better emotionally connect with them and respond more effectively to their needs.

Observing, meanwhile, allows you to recognise your own thoughts and feelings, improving emotional intelligence and enabling you to empathise as a parent.

Non-judging is the acceptance of thoughts and feelings and teaches parents acceptance of their mistakes and their child as a human being.

Mindfulness at the Preschool stage

Mindfulness in parenting benefits children of all ages, but is particularly relevant during the preschool stage.

Dealing with tantrums requires patience and understand.

At this stage, frustration and displeasure in children often lead to bursts of emotion in the shape of temper tantrums – as preschool parents are all too aware! And as kids learn to socialise, they must learn that they cannot get what they want all of the time.

Mindfulness can help parents deal with these conflicts by reducing their stress, allowing them to respond more calmly to tantrums, and by being a better example to children of how to manage emotions.

Slowing things down

Sometimes, with the day-to-day management of running a family, parents just feel too busy to be fully attentive to their kids’ needs. That’s a problem.

Being a mindful parent often means slowing things down. Take a breath, and listen to what your child is trying to tell you through their behaviour! This is particularly important for parents of children with behavioural issues.

Be in the moment.

Meanwhile, stress can be detrimental to family life. As well as impacting relationships between parents, children pick up on stress; they notice it and they feel it. And in fact, studies show that parental stress is a larger source of stress in kids than schoolwork or peer pressure.

Mindfulness can help mums and dads manage their stress, benefiting the whole family.  For more great tips on mindfulness techniques that you can use right away, check out this article from the INLP centre.

Thanks for reading about mindfulness for preschool parents! Have you practised mindfulness before? Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments!

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Every parent’s priority is to ensure their kids are safe wherever they go – and that includes keeping your kids safe online. This can seem like a daunting task.

But it is an essential challenge to manage, with 25% of kids aged six and under and 95% of teens owning a mobile device!

As we all know, the internet can be a dangerous place and with such wide access, it is the parents’ job to assure that kids are protected. 

Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to increase your children’s safety online. Here go our top 5 tips for keeping your kids safe online!

1. Start discussing safety online as early as possible

As soon as your children encounter the internet – which at first should be via a parent’s device and, of course, supervised – begin the conversation about safety online.

Make sure you supervise your toddlers when they use your devices!

You can explain the need to be careful when using devices connected to the internet, in the same way that you teach children to be careful when crossing roads in real life.

Start with simple safety concepts – like not talking to strangers, just like in real life –  and you can move on through the trickier stuff as they get older.

2.  Keep the conversation open and understand what your kids are doing – and why!

Once your kids are using devices more independently, be sure to sit down with them frequently to discuss safety. Crucially, listen to them!

You should allow them to explain to you what they are doing, so you can understand their point of view and their motives. Articulating what they are up to will also help kids consider their actions online more carefully.

Get involved while your kids use their favorite apps!

Entering their world will enable you to handle any risky behaviour in a non-confrontational and constructive way – which leads neatly on to the next tip.

3. Don’t ban your kids from doing things you don’t like

Banning things that you are not comfortable with is not always the best solution. Indeed, it can often make it even more tempting for a child to explore the forbidden fruit!

Instead, you must make your son or daughter understand why a certain behaviour or website makes you uncomfortable. 

In this way, you build a relationship on trust rather than fear. Make sure they know that when they are old enough, they will be able to use the internet as they please, but that as a parent, it’s your role to make sure they are safe.

4. Know which apps your kids use – and choose wisely

As noted in Tip 2, it is essential to listen to your kids and learn from them how they are using their devices and the internet.

You and your child can decide together on which apps they have access to. Of course, your job as the responsible parent is to make sure these decisions are wise.

This can be challenging, as kids will naturally want to use certain apps – social media, for example – before they are ready to do so. Again, your trust-based relationship on the topic of the internet and devices is crucial.

Fortunately, there are lots of safe apps for all sorts of things and for all age groups. We at Magikbee built our own – kiddZtube, the safe preschool video app. That would be a great option for a child who loves watching videos.

Our preschool video app – kiddZtube!

5. Spend time together offline!

It might sound obvious, but it is still a crucial bit of advice: spend time offline with your kids. Play board games, go to the park, or bake cakes together. There are thousands of 100% offline activities that you can enjoy with your children.

These activities are good for your kids – and good for you! Even light exercise, like a gentle bike ride, is great for your health.

Explore the great outdoors!

Meanwhile, teaching your child to enjoy real-life activities from an early age will help them understand the need for balance between time spent across the online and offline worlds. And they’ll also discover wholesome, healthy hobbies to enjoy for their whole lives!

There you have it! Our top five tips for keeping your kids safe online. Stay safe guys!