Children who eat regular family dinners grow up to be young adults who eat more healthily and have lower rates of obesity, while eating dinner as a family can also boost vocabulary.
Week six of The Irish Times and Pfizer Healthy Town will focus on encouraging families to spend quality time together and get involved in a range of events and activities taking place around Athlone throughout the week. On Wednesday, October 14, Dr Sarah O’Doherty, child clinical psychologist, will give a free public talk on the importance of family health, wellbeing, and relationships at 7pm in the Sheraton Athlone Hotel.
Even though all families are different, there are common key steps you can take to maintain positive relationships and improve the health and wellbeing of the whole family. Key tips for family health and wellbeing include balancing work and home life. It is not easy balancing your work and home life, but how you manage it can make quite a difference to your relationship with your family.
Parents often spend all their time looking after everyone else in the family and forget about themselves. If you do not look after yourself, you can end up feeling miserable. Try to organise some time together as a family a few times a week. Why not go for a walk, cycle, or swim together? Be there for each other. It is important for a family to be there for each other through the hard times, as well as the good times.
Events and activities happening during the week include: free public talks each week on a range of topics; running club training in the Regional Sports Centre every Monday at 7pm; hell and back training for teenagers every Monday in the Regional Sports Centre from 5pm to 5.45pm; free spinning class each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7.30am to 8.30am; a free parkrun in Athlone Institute of Technology every Saturday at 9.30am.
A dedicated microsite for Healthy Town can be viewed at www.irishtimes.com/healthytown To register for any of the free public talks email [email protected] or phone (01 ) 6690165.
