Happy Children's Day to all!
- ahaeurekamoment
- Oct 4, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2025
It’s the time of the year again — to soak in the spirit of childlike innocence and joyfulness! And beyond that, let's also celebrate and make space for the child in all of us - by dialing the mindful attention back to ourselves.
We all have a "child" in us - yearning to be seen, validated and celebrated. Let’s make time for this part of us today. (Suggestions: we can find play opportunities in our daily lives, or merely a reflective moment to do some stock-taking of our lives so far.)
I feel that it is challenging being a child in today’s society, with landscape of cultural underpinnings and societal expectations applicable to today's young people. Not only that, being a caregiver and/or educator to these children of today can be equally challenging too. Hence, I am glad that there was a recent implementation of two additional school holidays for preschool children and educators (namely, children’s day and teacher’s day) starting from this year onwards. This will in turn provide this group with an opportunity for some stock-taking and self-care/play retreat to reorient themselves and have some rest, in order to sustain them for the journey ahead.
In line with the belief that one needs to take care of one-self before one has capacity to take care of others under their care, this is definitely an initiative in the favourable direction. Well, this may be related to those cases, which were under intense media scrutiny, involving preschool educators in recent years. I wish that self care does not occur just in conjunction to a singular event/day or as a knee-jerk reaction to unfavourable outcomes, but that this can be a good start to consider having an ongoing routine to integrate into everyone’s life.
I see this as applicable to every segment of society - parents, educators, medical and mental health professionals, carers alike. Basically, anyone taking on care-giving roles and responsibilities can benefit from a regular "pit-stop" in order to recalibrate before resuming the care duty.
Start today - but let’s also plan how we can keep this as a sustainable routine of sorts. And guess what — it does not need to take up a large portion of your day. Instead, we can make gradual adjustments to daily routine - e.g., one can start by increasing lunch time by 10 more minutes to have more chews for each bite of food (yes, in reference to mindful eating - whereby one may appreciate the tastes, smells, colours, texture of food and stay present to the moment). The take-away may be a calmer nervous system, better digestion and greater presence with loved ones at dining table - just to name a few.
If you feel you (or your loved ones) may need further support on how to customise a self-care adjustment to your daily lifestyles, do consider reaching out to me by emailing me at ahaeurekamoment@gmail.com. I would be pleased to discuss and propose adjustments that you can incorporate into your regular life — which is sustainable and helpful for your well-being over the longer term.
Related posts that you may be interested:
For my reflections on play and play ideas, please check out my post on play!
For mental health check-ins, please check out my post on mental health screening.
Rooting for you always,
Jeanice
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