Too much sun for your family?
Do you know how to protect your family’s skin from too much sun? Make sure they are not faced with a lifetime of skin cancer issues.
As I am thinking about how to share this important need for a change in your habits for you and your family, I see a busy parent. A parent who is getting your kids ready for a few hours outside.
No this is not a calm quiet time. Grabbing that last-minute butterfly net. The sanitizer refill for cleaning the places you know they will be touching with their hands at the playground.
Remember the sunscreen and the umbrella. They are always in the wrong vehicle. Make sure everyone has sunglasses, wide-brimmed hats, sunscreen, and long-sleeved shirts. It is amazing that you get anywhere! Parents have been overlooked for a long time regarding how important they are to keep the family world turning.
Relying on some help with sun-protecting clothing is your best bet for protecting your family. Keeping up with reapplying sunscreen for more than one person will be hit and miss at best.
If you have sun blocking clothing you will have a way to protect those areas that get the sunscreen washed off or at best diluted by frequent trips in and out of the water.
Kids Learn Quickly
Learning to protect their skin when they are young is so important.
So many kids get to grow up walking where there are no stickers. You know, Sandburs and Goatheads? Being a child and able to walk barefooted is such a blessing.
However, in the part of the world where I live, that can’t happen. Carefully tended yards that have no weeds? That is not what we have at our house.
Watching my grandkids learn about stickers was painful. However, they quickly learn that when they are here at Granmom’s, you will need shoes on your feet if you go outside. These little ones also learn to be careful walking across rugs while in the house. Stickers transfer from shoe soles to rugs easily.
Every time it rains water runs across our yard from the horse pasture that is just behind us and a more elevated property than ours. The casual natural look of pasture comes with some issues that we didn’t consider.
Goatheads and sandburs are in pastures around us. They also wash into our yard as well.
Excess sun exposure does not come with a sharp prick to the skin when one is about to overdo the time. However, we are looking at something much more important to their overall health than stickers.
If there could be an uncomfortable reminder when you are in the sun after about 10 minutes like when you step on a sticker it would be easier. Easier to know that time is passing. That the sun is busy cooking your skin.
However, that is not what happens and this is part of the problem for skin protection. This is why having sun blocking clothing to help protect your skin is so important.
Persistence Will Be Necessary
To help as your kids continue to grow and have more fun times in the sun, parents must also remember to reinforce skin protection.
This is hard for kids to understand because the immediate effects of sun exposure are often difficult to see. They assume that there would be an immediate consequence just as stepping on a sticker if the sun is bad for them. The danger is in repeated exposures and this is a bit slow to show up.
That the sun can damage their skin even with the slightest change of color. The faintest of tans. If your child has enough exposure to result in any tan line, they have sun damage.
Sun Protection Is Important For Adults Too
As adults, we must make better choices for ourselves. For our families. Remember that skin damage is what happens with repeated exposures. The first few don’t usually make you realize that your kids are getting too much sun, way too early in life.
There is a comparison made between suntans and cigarettes. The self-imposed damage we are doing to ourselves. Smokers may argue for the first few years that they don’t feel any different. That smoking isn’t making any difference in their health. Most think that smoking is glamorous and grown-up. No one considers the outcome when starting smoking.
This same argument is used when suntanning individuals are asked about the tan lines. The freckles and different “spots” on their skin where damage is already showing.
A suntan is just one of those things that’s mysterious as we were growing up and maturing. We thought the rich and famous have tans, and why not me too? Seeing Coppertone ads we knew immediately that was all we need. One application and our skin would be that wonderful golden brown that is so beautiful.
I don’t know about you, but I have many freckles to show for my attempts to be the color of the Coppertone models. It just never did really happen, sure, I did tan a little, and I kept exposing my skin to the sun.
Now as an adult I visit the dermatologist quite often and I do have scars from skin cancer removal. Do you want that for your family? For your kids or yourself? Learning to live safely with the sun is a transition. You can do it and become much safer in the sun.
What Are Your Sun Safty Hints?
Sun blocking clothing and proper use of sunscreen are my hints for being safer in the sun. For protecting my skin I am conscious of the question of a safe time to be out in the sun. To help my family remember their skin protection when out in the sun.
A wide-brimmed hat is the first thing to grab. Your head and face are the first part of the body that is normally exposed to the sun.
Then add to protect your eyes from the damage the sun will do in a very short while. Why Children Need Sunglasses
Add a sun blocking long-sleeved shirt. Block the sun from doing damage to your skin. Some sun blocking shirts are made to swim in, check labels.
Next, add sunscreen. Proper use of sunscreen is so important for overall safety. Are you sure you understand how to properly apply sunscreen? Does your family understand reapplying after being in the water is an important part of keeping everyone healthy? Why We Need Sunscreen
Learn How To Take Care Of Your Family
Keep yourself informed about the ways you can help your family keep healthy skin and avoid skin cancer. Stay diligent about their skin protection. Your family will learn and this will help them stay healthy.
Be the parent with pop-up tents for shade and sun protection items that can go in a wagon and so you can easily haul to the play area when on family outings. Your sun-protecting clothing and sunscreen can be live in a handy spot to grab as they run out the door.
They can learn to take care of themselves and enjoy healthy skin throughout life. You can too! This will help see to see you do it.
Sami’s Take On Too Much Sun For Your Family
Yes, you will need to take a few extra steps to be able to protect your family from the sun. However, it is important, and your kids will probably have problems earlier in life than you will.
With the damage that our family has seen, I can say I did make serious mistakes. However, I didn’t know any better. You do. Technology has made it possible to track, trace and measure sun damage.
You know it is important.
Think through your child’s day in school to decide how you can help during the school year. Pay attention during other times of family fun in the sun. Make sure you are protecting your kids’ skin.
Don’t be complacent in your practice of safe fun in the sun. Have fun in the sun, just protect your skin. You might even consider sunscreen with coffee in it!