Sharing positive experiences, such as deciding on what to eat and/or prepping meals to eat together as a family, has many advantages for you and your children of all ages! These advantages include increased regulation of the mind and body which can help you cope with some of the day-to-day stressors you may also experience with your child or other loved ones near to you. Incorporating intentions and plans to share routine positive experiences with your child/ren and talking with them about these plans, helps create shared value and effort for them to be carried out. This also shows the importance of caring for yourself and your loved ones on a regular basis through thoughtful actions in meal form. Offering your child an agreed upon mealtime responsibility as part of your regular routine can help empower him/her to meet goals toward positive change. For a child, a task that may seem as simple as gathering ingredients or setting the table can feel like a huge expectation for a child to meet. In such situations, steps should be broken down to one or two steps at a time to create even more goals that you and your loved one can get excited about achieving!

Practicing meeting these goals with your child on a daily basis also creates important time for bonding that can help you better understand each other and/or work together as a family.

Share positive experiences... Everyday!!

Angelica Rivera is one of our wonderful Psychology Clinical Trainees supporting children through our partnership with Compton Unified School District. She is currentl y finishing up a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
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