What is the difference between parenting and child health

The core difference between the two is the difference in category boundaries and action goals - parenting is the sum of systematic parenting behaviors covering the entire growth cycle of minors aged 0 to 18 years old, while children's health is a professional subdivision within the framework of parenting goals that focuses on the complete state of children's physical, psychological and social adaptability, and is one of the core support modules of parenting.

I have been coaching children for almost 7 years, and I have met too many parents who confuse the two. Last month, I met a mother of a second-grade child who lives in Haidian. She came to me with a sad face and said that she made rainbow nutritious meals for her child in different ways every day, and swam three times a week and played tennis twice every year. To ensure that all indicators are above the 90th percentile, it stands to reason that the baby is well-raised. However, the baby was laughed at twice by classmates because he was slow to tie his shoelaces when he first entered elementary school. She refused to go to school. At first, she thought the baby was faking and said, "You are in good health, how can you have so many problems?" In fact, according to WH O's definition of children's health is not only the absence of disease or weakness, but also a complete state of psychological and social adaptation. A child's resistance to going to school and low self-esteem is already a health warning at the level of social adaptation, and her previous parenting actions only covered physical health. It does not even cover the complete requirements for children's health, let alone achieve the full-dimensional goal of parenting - after all, parenting also includes broader dimensions such as guidance on resilience, cultivation of social skills, shaping of habits, and exploration of interests. It is far more than as simple as "growing taller without illness and pain".

There are actually different voices in the industry regarding the boundary between the two. Most scholars who do public health research believe that children’s health should not be classified only as a subset of family parenting. After all, tasks such as childhood vaccination, congenital disease screening, and adolescent depression prevention and control are all public issues promoted by the health and education systems, and cannot be covered by the parenting behavior of a single family. Many colleagues who do family education research will feel that children's health itself is the basis of all parenting behaviors. Without health as a support, talking about habit cultivation and academic planning is empty. There is no need to be too clear about the two. In fact, both views are valid. To give an inappropriate analogy, just like if you plant an orange tree, water it, fertilize it, remove insects, and protect it from the sun to ensure that it does not get sick and grows strong, this corresponds to the goal of children's health; and when to set up the tree, how to prune the branches, and in which direction to guide the branches so that they can eventually bear sweet fruits are the tasks of parenting in a broader sense.

I rarely talk about concepts when communicating with parents. Instead, I will remind everyone to clarify the priorities of things: for example, if a child has just entered kindergarten and has recurrent respiratory infections, then the child's health care and immunity regulation must be put first. When the child's condition is stable, I will slowly guide him how to share with children and how to follow classroom order. If, on the other hand, the child's fever reaches 38 degrees Celsius and he is forced to practice concentration and memorize ancient poems, then the priorities are completely reversed. To put it bluntly, whether it is focusing on children's health or parenting, the ultimate goal is not to let the children grow up comfortably and happily.