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46. Create happy moments with your children every morning
How young children wake up in the morning will determine their mood for most of the daytime. Young children who start the day in a happy mood, will most likely remain happy children for the rest of the day. In contrary, a child who wakes up with lots of whimpers will continue whining until someone does various extra efforts to cheer him/her up. Some children will even keep on sitting on their parents' laps and being miserable for at least the first half of the day.
Parents play a very important role in creating such a happy atmosphere at the time young children wake up in the morning.
Healthy children will love waking up to:
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A happy greeting. Small children are very dependent on their parents. The first thing they do as soon as they are awake is look for their parents. They may continue calling their parents loudly to come to them immediately. I advice parents not to ignore them but to come right away and greet them cheerfully with a hello, a kiss, a hug and perhaps also a cheerful song.
- A happy face. The happiness shown on the parents' face while greeting and talking to children is something they will always remember. It is infectious too. Happy parents will create happy children. Happy children will in turn create a happy world to live in. Isn’t that wonderful?
What if a child keeps on whimpering and being sad as they wake up in the morning? What could be the problem? Based on personal experience, I could conclude three explanations as follows:
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The child is still very sleepy. The child was probably up till late the night before. If this is the case, the only advice I could give is try to get the child back to sleep gently. It is important to get the child follow the normal sleeping pattern step by step for the next couple of days.
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The child has an unfulfilled wish. A child whines and asks for something continually. The child perhaps asks for the same clothes he/she wore yesterday or demands to go out somewhere. I can say that this case is a combination of another improper bed time scheduling plus a lack of communication between parents and the child. Besides introducing the child to a proper bed time schedule over again, I advise parents to build a close communication with him/her. Parents must show their love to children, always listen to what they say and talk to them as often as possible. Parents may also want to accompany children for some minutes on the bed each night to read to them as well as talk about a plan for tomorrow. Provide the children with some interesting but simple ideas to do tomorrow. The next morning, they will wake up happily knowing that something interesting is going to happen. Perhaps the children will still be a bit fussy over their unfulfilled wish, but with parents' guide through good communication this problem can soon be solved. Children who has enough sleep and good communication with parents will grow into agreeable children and rarely develop a tantrum.
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The child is not feeling very well. A sick child may appear inactive, soundless and eat less than usual. Symptoms of an illness are sometimes not obvious on the very first day. Parents will think that the child is still very sleepy. It happens quite often to small children because of their immature immune system. I think the way that a child refuses to eat food offered to him/her is already a sign for parents to be curious and take precautious protection towards the child's physical condition.
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