Being a parent makes staying healthy feel like a monumental task. Your mind is always on the kids, and rarely on yourself, and that usually leaves very little time for things like self care activities, or talking things over with a friend.
Even if you really need these things, you’re much more likely to put them off again and again, waiting for a day (or hour!) when you’re actually free for them. The tragedy of that, however, is that time like that is equally as unlikely to come around.
But in 2025, we’re keen to make a difference! Parents deserve to feel healthy too, and to spend time taking care of their own health. You may think that when the kids are fine, you are too, but that often isn’t really the case. Pushing aside your needs because you’re a parent shouldn’t be a normal thing, and it shouldn’t be something you always feel you have to do.
Instead, you can focus on making life more healthy for you, and in turn, that’ll have a great knock on effect on your kids as well. So, without further ado, here are some things you can try to make the year ahead your healthiest one yet.
Approach Healthy Challenges as a Family
If the kids are your life, get the kids involved in your life! That can make a big difference to how successful you become at making healthy changes. You’re taking it on together as a family, which can also make you more likely to stick to the change in the long term. You don’t want the kids to see you’re ‘flaking’ on something you promised you’d keep up with!
And when you don’t need someone to come over to keep an eye on the kids when you’re out for a run, because they’re out there with you, it tends to be cheaper on the household budget too!
Of course, this doesn't mean you need to get the kids to pick up running as a habit as well. If you like doing it to stay fit, you can get your child to come along on the route on their scooter. Or you can all go down to the park for a couple of hours and fit in your run for the day by playing a game of footie together on the green.
Simply put, when you try something healthy but challenging as a group, you bring so many more benefits into your life. The kids get to learn a valuable lesson about living well and putting in the hard work, and you get mini accountability monitors to cheer you on and keep you going!
Take Baby Steps to Remove Unhelpful Habits
Some unhelpful habits are picked up due to stress, some are picked up because they don’t take much time, and some develop completely by accident. No matter how it got started, when an unhealthy habit calls your life home, it tends to be here to stay! You have to put some active effort into removing it again, and we all know just how exhausting that can be.
So let’s approach this in a way that’ll work, especially when you’re a busy parent with so much else going on to distract you. Take baby steps. Little steps that add up to one long journey really can improve your habit forming behaviours, and break down the things that make your life feel worse.
Taking baby steps gives you the time you need to adjust to this habit not being in your life anymore. You’re not plunging headfirst and simply getting rid, and in doing so, causing a deficit in your life that will be just as easily filled by something else that’s unhealthy.
Going at pace and giving yourself space to think about what you want, how you want to change things, and what you could do instead, is much healthier in the long term. It’s why so many people turn to using products like berry flavour nicotine pouches when they’re trying to reduce their smoking.
Replacing the initial habit with something similar, but less harmful, makes it easier to remove the need to take a smoke break from their life. And when you can just nip out into the garden for 5 minutes and have a smoke, many parents do struggle to keep an unhealthy habit like this out of their life.
Cut Down on Your Own Screen Time
It’s a big worry when it comes to the kids, but how do your own screen time habits compare? When they go off to bed, do you spend the next couple of hours staring at the TV? Maybe you’re always on social media on your phone during your lunch break at work?
If these sound like things you do, but you’re always advising the kids against doing, maybe it’s time for a change there too!
If screen time is a bit of an issue in your house, why not put a rule in place that everyone has to follow?
No screens at the dinner table includes mummy and daddy. No TV before finishing your homework also means the adults don’t have TV on in the background either. And if Saturdays and Sundays only have a screen time allocation of 20 minutes each day, you have to follow along with the rule too!
Less screen time, more time to do other things that are more hands-on, or give you a chance to learn a new skill, or ensure you’re in the mood to go out for a coffee with a friend you haven’t seen in a while.
Try New and Fun Things
When you’re raising kids, it’s important to have a routine. As part of that routine, however, you may miss out on trying new things, and simply because they don’t quite fit into the tight schedule you’ve pulled together.
This schedule has been essential, of course, but sometimes you get so comfortable with it you’re usually reticent to try and step outside of it. That’s not all that great, in the long run, as it can turn life into a box ticking exercise that leaves you with little freedom to explore anything else that could be good for you.
Making a change here can be tricky, as you’re going to need to find time to try new things, and maybe even start paying for childcare as you do so. However, if you’re keen to get out more, we do highly recommend giving this a go for at least the next couple of months.
And if you and your partner want to spend a bit more time that’s just the two of you, why not try these new and fun things together? Eg., make a habit of picking an evening class out of a brochure and go to it together, and take it in turns to be the one who suggests what to try next.
Even if you both find you didn’t really enjoy it, you can leave it together, knowing you had some time to experience something new as a partnership - and you probably had a good laugh with each other at the same time too!
Be Your Best Self in 2025: What Parents Should Remember
This year can be your healthiest year yet, but it’s not going to become that way by accident. Take the time to focus on things you could change that would benefit you, especially if you’ve had no quality time to yourself lately!