As a parent, it’s your responsibility to keep your family healthy. This is the most important thing you do, so it is important to do it correctly. Your children have physical, mental, and emotional needs that need to be addressed. But to effectively care for them, you need to take care of yourself as well. If you’re unsure where to begin when keeping your family healthy, here are three essential tasks to start with.

Go to the Doctor

Everybody needs to see the doctor regularly to make sure they’re healthy. For anyone over the age of 4, the recommendation is an annual checkup. When you visit the doctor, they can check you for any problems you might have. This might include concerns that you bring up or it could be something that they notice during their examination. If you don’t go to your doctor, you might never get answers to your problems. So, even if you and your children don’t want to go, you need to make your yearly appointments.

Your doctor is always the first step in getting specialized care for any conditions you might have. Without their examination and approval, you often can’t get particular resources covered by your insurance provider. While your doctor can give you some general healthcare tips and ideas, a specialist can look deeper into the problem for you. So make sure that you go to the doctor and follow up with any specialists that they recommend.

Set a Good Example

Your children will emulate what you do as a parent. If you want to keep them healthy, then you need to keep yourself healthy as well. Set a good example for them throughout everyday life. Let them see you eating healthy foods and exercising in ways that you enjoy. You should also let them see you acting in a mentally healthy way. Admit when you make mistakes and take time to relax and enjoy yourself. As a parent, you might not realize exactly how much your children look up to you. If you set a good example by taking care of your health, it will motivate them to take care of their own, both now and when they get older.

Setting a good example also means communicating with your children openly and honestly. If you’re not sure about the best way to open up these lines of communication, look online for examples. Roughly 53% of website traffic comes from organic searches, so you’re not alone. You’ll be able to find tips to help you start conversations with your children.

Indulge in Healthy Activities

While health should be a part of your everyday life, make time to indulge yourself and your children once in a while. For the whole family, consider going swimming or relaxing in a jacuzzi tub. For older family members, you might consider things like massage or a visit to a med spa. Med spas are medical facilities that perform cosmetic procedures in a spa-like environment. It might be a fun way to stay healthy and relax away from your responsibility as a parent. According to the Medical Spa Association, 70% of spa clients are repeat customers. So if you like it, keep going!

If you want a healthy family, you need to put the work in to get it. But this doesn’t have to be an arduous task. Instead, incorporate healthy activities into your daily life. Find things that you and your children enjoy doing together. The less it feels like a chore, the more likely you are to stick with healthy habits. So set a good example for your children and be as healthy as possible together.