Thursday 18 August 2011

Touch for Kids

children experience stress too
One of the many 'Hats' that I wear in my life is as a Qualified Massage Therapist. I have performed and given hundreds of massage treatments over the past twelve years. I am most passionate about giving nurturing touch to children, babies and pregnant women.

As adults, we all know that tension and stress manifests itself as knots and muscle soreness commonly in our shoulders and neck, with the odd headache attached. This is no different for children. Particularly in boys. Steve Biddulph writes in his book, Raising Boys, that male children from the ages of 8 to the teenage years often have shoulders that are "hard as rocks". 

I have found this to be the case on my 8 year old. He carries a heavy school bag, he climbs trees and gym equipment, he uses computers daily at school and concentrates hard on reading and writing and learning. It's no wonder his shoulders become so tense.

give your child the gift of touch
Over the years, as Junior Hoges has gotten older, he has become less inclined to just come and snuggle or cuddle with me. To counteract this, I have taken to giving Junior a regular weekly shoulder and neck massage of about fifteen minutes in duration. 

I ask Junior to sit on a chair, leaning into a cushion. He sits facing away from me, back to front on the chair. Using a medium firm pressure (I always ask what is comfortable for him first) I massage my way around the top of the shoulders, between the shoulder blades, at the base of the skull and the sides of the neck. For me, this a great way for us to bond and for me to express love. For Junior, he gets to receive the gift of touch, learn to relax and connect with mum.

This week, why don't you introduce the gift of touch with your kids and feel the connection.

Be Happy
Nicola 

image credit 

5 comments:

Felicity said...

Brilliant as ever!

A little anecdote about massage in our home:

A couple of years ago Captain V surprised me with two giant presents for Christmas.

The first was a hammock which I LOVE and have used almost every day since [in fact we've bought a second one] and the other?
A massage table. It's been set up a couple of times but I'm not a fan...in fact I think Captain V bought it for himself really.

You've inspired me to dig it out this weekend and see if I can encourage everyone to both jump on board AND dispense some massages - I'll keep you posted.

xx F

Unknown said...

really nice idea Miss M would love this!

Anonymous said...

This is a lovely idea. Great post. (via FYBF)

Kristy @Loveandblasphemy said...

When my boy was a baby and he'd sit in my lap, I'd massage his shoulders and back and head. My friend was like, "Do you think he's stressed out or something?" She thought I was silly! But, I just feel that it is a natural thing for humans, even babies! Now, at bedtime, he loves me to scratch his back. So relaxing. (for him!)

Anonymous said...

Oh i love this, i was big on baby massage when my 4 were new, it made a huge difference, well i suspect, they slept amazingly well, they never had cholic or any ailments (ditto now, aged 12 to 7) & just had amazing tone, movement & sense of calm about them (still do). I'm looking after myself more these days with some lavender oil on my shoulders, it really helps, i carry all my stress in my shoulders now. Sorry your boy doesn't snuggle up as often now, mine does (he's 7.5 years old) & still love a good foot rub, cuddle & i'm always taking the tension out of his shoulders (he doesn't carry a heavy bag, well not far anyway). I'm feeling a whole lot less weird & think all 4 of them could do with a lovely rainy Saturday afternoon massage, love Posie