I will tell you a story based on my positive personal experience of how a healthy dad can improve his children’s social life.
Recently a good friend of mine, let’s call him “M,” was refurbishing his apartment completely. Moving almost all old furniture and carpentry out and putting new in. He was skilled in that kind of work, so he needed more “hands” to finish the job within two days and not pay much for it. That way, he could afford better-quality items for the kids’ room.
The start of the first day, Saturday, was excellent. He called a dozen friends, myself included, to help him with all the needed work. Our pay was: good chat while helping, tasty sandwiches, and soft drinks. All of us showed up while the married guys brought their children to play with M’s daughter and son.
M handled everything requiring high skill and organizing the activities. His wife ran the kitchen, ensuring the kids were safe and playing nicely. Her role was to lead the next day when the painting and new furniture arranging would take place.
The rest of us mainly needed to do the heavy lifting: dismantle and take all the furniture and carpentry out of the building (6th floor) and prepare it for the truck to take away. We had a full first day for doing only that.
The first few hours were relaxed. By lunchtime, we all understood that we were way behind schedule and would miss finishing everything by the time the truck arrived to pick up the things we were taking out.
The second part of the day was all business – much less talking and much more lifting. The day passed with many grunts and loud joint pops.
Results. We were utterly worn out. We managed to finish most of the planned work. The kids had great fun playing all day. An additional bonus was jumping on the old beds as much as they liked without the grown-ups telling them not to.
The next day I was the only one showing up. On my question, what happened with the rest of the guys? M told me that some had found excuses why they couldn’t arrive. Others admitted they were so sore they couldn’t do anything except injure themselves. M was unhappy as finishing all the tasks would take a few more days. The following two days have been quite challenging. We spoke and rested a little. When we did, we got suspicious looks from his wife.
We managed to finish most of the heavy lifting stuff, so M decided that he and his wife would finish the rest at a slower pace.
On the other hand, our kids have been more than disappointed that all is “already done.” Adam and M’s daughter have known each other since they were babies, but they built a special bond during these three days, which lasts today.
Conclusions: 7 reasons how a healthy dad can improve his children’s social life:
1. To do meticulously physically hard work in your 40s and not get injured, you first need to be healthy and in good shape.
If you pull that out, your kids will be proud of you for sure, and, as from my story, it can socially benefit them to improve their friendships and have good fun.
2. Being able to perform physically well when other parents can not give your and other kids a positive message about why sports and healthy food are important.
3. If you are healthy and helping your friends, you will be more appreciated, even if your skills in those activities are not excellent.
You will be a role model for your kids. Without saying anything, your message will be clear: be healthy, practice sport, be a good person, and people around you will appreciate and like you.
Although, being stylish helps for sure.
4. Your children will learn that helping their friends is essential to prove your reliability and build strong friendships that will last.
5. You will show your kids that while you are giving their friends a helping hand, they can help too. Clean dust, paint something or (at least pretend to) wash the dishes.
6. If you have some crafting skills besides doing your regular job well, your value will drastically increase in your society. It is a simple fact that in today’s western societies, people are increasingly narrowly skilled and less capable of doing even the basic tasks at home. Exceptions are rare, especially in urban areas. Plumbing, painting, and carpentering are necessary, yet, many have almost zero capabilities to do them without risking making things worse or hurting themselves.
Having these skills and physical conditions to perform them with relative ease will open many doors and help your children to meet more potential friends.
Suppose they manage to learn some of these skills too. In that case, it can help them be more socially and economically resilient in these interesting times.
7. While doing all this, your children will learn one of the most critical skills and lessons in their life: to be socially desirable.
Learning that skill will help them make friendships and business relationships easier throughout childhood and all their lives.
In the modern world, for good or for bad, most people’s perception of someone is based on social interactions.
For your kids to have a better and happier life, that is something you would really like them to learn and master.
