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Article Increase your child’s emotional health

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Can your child answer simple ‘do you know’ questions about their family?

I’m not talking about the ‘do you know where you live’, ‘do you know your full name’, ‘how old are you’, type questions being bantered around as many of our little ones are off to orientation days at big school.

I’m talking about conversation starting questions like ‘do you know where your mum and dad went to school? Do you know where your parents met?’

Last year there was a fantastic article that appeared in the New York Times – The Family Stories that Bind Us. To quote from that article:

“The more children knew about their family’s history…the higher their self-esteem… The “Do You Know?” scale turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness.

The bottom line: if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the story of your family’s positive moments and your ability to bounce back from the difficult ones.”

One of the simplest ways to tell your family stories and to get those conversations started is to spend time looking through photos.

Remember the old adage a picture tells a thousand words!

Did you know that 80% of images never make it off the mobile device on which they were taken?

In the Christmas pre-season we challenge you to prepare and equip yourself to get these conversations started with your family:

  • Print some photos to display in your home.
  • Create a family year book and read it to your children.
  • How about an A to Z photobook all about your family to help your children learn the alphabet?  I did one for my two and despite them now having learned all their letters they still love reading it!  For those of you participating in the FatMum Slim photo a day challenge you might already be well on your way to having all your letters covered!

Now is the perfect time to get your photos organised so you can utilise them in any number of photo related products that can be enjoyed by your family.

Curious about the 20 questions on the “Do You Know Scale” Read more here

Remember:  A birth certificate shows that you were born. A death certificate shows that you died.  A PHOTOGRAPH shows that you really LIVED! (author unknown).

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com
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Comments

  • My husband and I have really tried to make an effort to take more pictures in the last year. We realised months would go by without taking one together. And, after an unfortunate reset of my phone, to make sure to back up our phones regularly and have google drive save pictures. Cover all bases and keep those memories to show the baby when he’s older.

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  • My children have many photos to show them they lived and HOW they all lived. Great post and great quote.

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  • Wow. I would never have realised this! I hardly talk about me to the kids. Must be about time I do

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  • i loved the final quite ont this article. it is so true!

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  • Just thought of my goal for the year…take more photos.

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  • Oh I love that saying at the end! I must remember that! Thanks for the article. You have inspired me to try and put some photo books together.

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  • My toddler is a really poser! I don’t think I could possibly print every photo I’ve taken of him! But I will choose some to print!

    • it is good how we can take a hundred photos no worries

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  • great ideas I am going to try

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  • This ‘did you know scale’ seems like a great idea for growing toddlers.
    My next mission now is to print out ALL photos I have taken since my daughter was born!!
    Thank you so much for the inspiration to do so.

    • toddlers in particular have hilariously funny responses when asked these questions….trying jotting those answers down, you can then add some photos and hey presto a book is made for hours of future enjoyment

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  • What a great read, some excellent suggestions.

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  • Amazing when my kids have their friends over that they don’t know the answer to some of these questions. Sad really but then again the parents could start the conversation by just telling their children about themselves rather than relying on the children to ask. Thanks for the reminder.

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  • this is very interesting.

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  • Interesting….I really thought that these things were just things that people discussed with their kids anyway. Im kind of surprised if the truth is that people dont discuss things like this with their kids.
    Ive actually taken my kids on a holiday to the area where i grew up. I showed them my schools, the house i grew up in, my grandmothers house. then we traveled to a different area and they saw where their grandfather and great grand parents grew up. They loved it and learnt a lot. We even visited an old friend of my grandmothers…she was 104 and bright as a spark…she told stories of her memories of going to dances with my grandparents.

    • You are right, many of us do already discuss these things with our kids. For some this will be a nudge in the right direction.

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  • My children know the basics, but some things we don’t want them to know.

    • Oh yes there are some skeletons that we wont be sharing along with MANY photos, well not yet anyway perhaps when they are MUCH older. But how great to be able to show them we were cool too.

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  • After reading this we played do you know quiz at dinner, I was surprised at what the kids new about my husband and my life pre them was a great thing to do

    • What a fantastic thing to do! I am humbled that I inspired you and thrilled for you and your family with the results

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  • A birth certificate shows that you were born. A death certificate shows that you died. A PHOTOGRAPH shows that you really LIVED!

    Love that!

    I find that I too get lazy with printing photos, mainly because where am I going to put them all. With the convenience of digital I can take hundreds of photos and not have to pay at the chemist to get them all developed.

    • It is great isn’t it! Wish I had been able to source the quote and credit them.
      So can I ask are you going to take the challenge????

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  • This is very encouraging for a child

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  • I always go get my photos printed & put them in an album. Its nice flicking through a photo album & the kids love it too

    • That’s great and I am sure it is paying off with some great conversations

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  • Love this idea I’m going toile it a go

    • That’s GREAT! Pop over to our page and follow along, we love it when our fans to share their efforts.

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  • As a scrapbooker I love to take photos and I admit there are too many on my hard drive than in scrapbooks. My kids do like to look through photos and with most of our family spread out across Australia it is one way that the can remember who is who. I always answer my children when they ask about family that are no longer with us and those questions are normally asked when they find something that was given to me or my husband when we were little. In particular both my girls love that my hubby and I both still have a stuffed toy – mine is now 37 years old and my girls love that it is as OLD as mummy and quite often take it to bed with them. My youngest grew attached to a stuffed dog that was my husbands when he was a kid – she quite happily takes “super dog” on new adventures and is excited to tell her daddy where “super dog” has been.

    • What a wonderful story, thank you for sharing! My children often play with their dad’s LOTSA caterpillar toy. Good emotional health here we come.

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