Your child’s emotional wellbeing is just as important as their physical health. With increasing numbers of young people experiencing mental health difficulties, it’s important to do everything we can to help children develop the tools they’ll need in later life.

By taking a proactive approach to your child’s emotional development, you can help them to deal with challenging situations, access support when they need it, and process their feelings in a healthy way. To learn more, take a look at these top tips for optimizing your child’s emotional wellbeing:

1. Encourage Self-Reflection

Children are capable of self-reflection from a relatively young age and this is a good way for them to help identify their thoughts and feelings. Encouraging your child to vocalize their feelings and helping them to establish the cause of these emotions is a great way to start.

2. Recognize Accomplishments

Whenever your child achieves something – whether it’s big or small – be sure to recognize it. It’s easy to overlook things when you’re dealing with the pressures of work and family life, but taking a few seconds to congratulate your child can have an enormous impact on them.

3. Know the Challenges They’re Facing

Your child will experience different issues as they get older and it’s important to have an understanding of the challenges that they’re likely to face. You may want to learn more about internet safety before your child starts high school, for example. Alternatively, take a look at this article on the college students mental health crisis to get a deeper insight into issues older teens are experiencing. No matter what age your kids are, you’ll always play a role in their emotional wellbeing, so staying up to date with the issues facing tweens and teens can be extremely helpful.

4. See Things from Their Perspective

When you take the time to see things from your child’s perspective, you’re showing that you value their thoughts, feelings and opinions. What’s more – you’re teaching them how important it is to listen to other people and take their feelings on board. Children need to feel valued, and actively listening to them is just one way you can reinforce this.

5. Be Available

You can’t always drop everything to take your kid to the park or play video games with them, but being as accessible as possible is always beneficial. When your child knows they can talk to you about anything, you can ensure they feel comfortable reaching out for support when it’s needed. Remember – kids will often approach major topics when you’re partially distracted, so don’t let this prevent you from hearing what they have to say.

Prioritizing Good Mental Health

Although awareness of mental health issues is growing, it’s still difficult for many people to find the help and support they need. By prioritizing your child’s emotional development, you can help to ensure that they have the tools and resources they need throughout their life. Additionally, making mental health a topic of conversion in your home will help to teach your kids to nurture their own emotional wellbeing.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.

I’ve previously written about Quiz Clothing as I wore one of their gorgeous dresses when I was a judge at The Blogging Awards back in April and again for my Mother’s 60th Birthday celebrations in May. Their ability to replicate great seasonal trends at a fraction of the price makes them a firm favourite here in the UK.

Along with great dresses another passion of mine as we know is holidays and travelling; and it seems Quiz Clothing knows me all too well as they’ve launched in Spain. I’ve been visiting Spain since I was five as we have lots of family friends who are Spanish, meaning a year doesn’t go by without a trip either to Bilbao, Barcelona or Alicante.

My determined hand luggage only mantra – Boo and I famously only had one hand luggage for a ten day trip to Spain between us – it does mean that I pack light on anything that can’t be rolled and/or worn lots of different ways. This means that if a fiesta or occasion crops up while we’re there that I’m them out of outfits; as much as I love Spanish high street shops, who wants to sacrifice precious time on the beach with Boo or brushing up on my Spanish with friends wandering round all the shops. And now I don’t have to with Quiz Clothing in Spain – being it a Vestido De Fiesta or a killer pair of Zapatos, I now know that I can rely on Quiz Clothing while I get back to the serious business of sharing a sandía with Boo on the playa.

Because no matter how much I love shopping, this view of the beach can’t be beaten…

Disclosure: A fee was received for this post.

Winter is well and truly here and for us that means ramping up our love affair with roast dinners; Aunt Bessie’s set us a challenge this month – they wanted to see what I came up with for a meat free roast. Neither me or Boo are vegetarians but I immediately knew what to cook. You see our family takes roasts rather seriously – this is a snapshot of what a casual Sunday lunch looks like at my Mum’s. I know everybody claims their mother is the best cook but mine really is.

Macaroni Cheese and aubergine parmigiana might not sound like obvious stars of a meat free roast but trust me when I say they are right at home on the dinner table alongside, roast potatoes, parsnips and Yorkshire puddings. Both dishes are cooked from scratch with the aubergine parmigiana being the most labour intensive as you have to cooke the aubergines beforehand with prep time nudging an hour but totally worth it.

Meat, aubergines, a deliciously disgraceful amount of cheese; these may come and go but one component of a family roast that remains constant is the mighty potato. With all my attention on prepping the aubergine parmigiana I knew I could count on Aunt Bessie’s Homestyle Crispy Roast potatoes.

Aunt Bessie’s Roasties are rated by Mumsnet (check out the Mumsnet badge on the packet) with over 75% saying they would recommend them. They’re super convenient, no more part boiling; 25 minutes in the oven and they’re done! I’ve learnt that Aunt Bessie’s Roasties are also vegetarian and gluten free – perfect for families with differing dietary needs.

The result was a decadent meat free feast that was a sure fire hit and left us with enough for at least two days… proving it pays to put in a few hours in the kitchen on a Sunday as it means you can rely on the wonder that is leftovers.

Meat doens’t need to take centre stage for your roast to be a hit with the family – move over meat sweats, there’s a new kid on the block: cheese sweats! What’s your family favourite when it comes to quirky roast dinner twists?

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity. A fee has been received for this post.

Back in July on one of the hottest days of the year I headed to Lidl’s Christmas event; whilst most people were thinking about beaches and ice-cream I was sampling Lidl’s Christmas range. Now that it’s November and officially acceptable to mutter the C word, here’s my to picks of the very best from Lidl this Christmas…

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a canapé or ten! The smoked salmon canapé with salmon caviar looked amazing and tasted even better, these are definitely making an appearance on Christmas Day in our house.

All the pâtés were delicious but the one that really stood out for me was the smoked salmon pâté with cream cheese topping, everything from the taste to the glass jar packaging gave it a luxury feel; my only complaint: it’s not available all year!

The picky bits are the unsung heroes of Christmas food, yes I love a turkey Christmas dinner, but for me Christmas is all about the delicious picky bits that have me returning to the fridge again and again. Pigs in blankets, stuffing balls and the like manage to tick picky bits and main plate in one fell swoop and the variety available is second to none.

I’ve been getting my turkey from Lidl for over three years but I was excited to explore their Christmas meat range further. The lamb Wellington was perfectly cooked and was really tasty, I’m not even sure I could pretend I’d cooked it myself, it tasted too good for my cooking skills! I saw this in my local Lidl last week and at £8 for two it rivals, in fact it beats the Christmas pants off the likes of Waitrose and Marks and Spencer’s festive offering.

The profiterole tower is a real showstopper of a Christmas dessert, it comes with its own tower and whilst assembly is pretty simple, it’s a great activity to get the kids involved with, with its taste living up to they hype of its presentation. If profiteroles don’t float your christmas dessert boat then there are plenty of alternatives from the traditional Christmas puddings (some with a delicious twist) to mini tarts plus the all important cheeses – because what’s Christmas without a decadent cheese board.

The Marc de champagne truffles were absolutely delicious, they’re my favourite chocolate so I’ve tried lots of different brands over the years and I have to say Lidl beats the pants off some of the famous chocolatiers. The children’s chocolate range at Lidl is always a highlight: from mini chocolate brussel sprouts to the obligatory chocolate Father Christmas, they’re great not just for sticking fillers but throughout the festive period as a perfectly sized morsel of a festive treat. The chocolate coated almonds were lovely and I can’t wait to get these in for Christmas as an alternative to chocolates.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Lidl mini stollen bites, so handy, so tasty, so easy to finish the whole pack in one – delicious but dangerous, ha!

Pushing the boat out at Christmas isn’t reserved just for food, lets’ not forget that drinks are a big part of Christmas, which doesn’t necessarily mean just alcohol. I tried the chateauneuf du pape and was amazed to learn that it came in at less than £10 for a bottle, one of my favourite wines and it doesn’t break the bank. Operation ‘buy all the bottles of chateauneuf du pape’ will begin tomorrow as we head to our local lidl. I also tried the rosé and again couldn’t believe little it cost, it had enough body to be drunk in winter, and a great alternative to white wine as I’m not the biggest fan. The Sicilian lemon soft drink was so refreshing and a very adult alternative to the boring lemonade that is so often offered to the designated driver over Christmas. And the drink of the moment, gin isn’t forgotten with some great new flavours of Lidl’s Hortus gins arriving in stores over the coming weeks.

Lidl has long been a brand that I’ve loved, they offer high quality (often hard to find) products at amazing value, and their Christmas range just shows how they continue to improve. Lidl is the busy mothers’ amazing helper, helping Christmas to go off with a bang for all the right reasons, meaning that maybe just maybe I might find time to out my feet up and enjoy a glass or two of chateauneuf du pape!

I’ve long been known as the queen on Lidl amongst my friends and families, I’m hoping that this year’s Christmas range will inspire them to switch to Lidl, not only will you be saving lots, but you may just have the best Christmas food… ever!

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.