4 New Years Resolutions Everyone in the Family Can Stick To

Posted on January 13, 2020

With the New Year just arriving, you may still be thinking about your resolutions or setting new goals for your personal or family life. Setting goals and making new commitments can benefit both you and your family.

As you think through the changes you’d like to see in your personal and family life, consider these ways you can start the New Year off right.

Work on spending time together – Families tend to spend a lot of time around each other during the holidays, but as soon as they end the hustle and bustle of everyday life takes over and families often find themselves with little time to connect. The New Year is a great time to set a goal to spend at least one night a week together as a family. Create a game night or movie night once a week. Maybe even mix it up and do something different each week. Have everyone in the family come up with five family activities they want to do, then put them in a bowl and pick them out one by one, scheduling them a week or two in advance. This way everyone in the family gets to do something they picked to do pretty frequently.

Limit screen time – Parents often complain that all their children want to do is watch TV, play video games or text and talk on their phones. The amount of time children spend engaged in these activities is disturbing and can be frustrating to parents. However, parents are often distracted with these devices as well. How much time do you spend on your smart phone, tablet or laptop at home around meal time and in the evenings? Challenge yourself to limit the time you spend on these devices when you could be spending time with your children. Set a new rule that there are no phones at the meal table, parents included. Spend that 30 minutes engaging in conversation with your children instead. Your older children may resist at first, but as they see you put away your phone and really connect in conversation with them, they will become less opposed to the idea.

Help others – Building a sense of generosity in your children can be difficult. Working on projects to help others as a family can be a very memorable experience for them that they cherish for a lifetime. Serving at a soup kitchen, volunteering to be a part of a city wide clean-up day and signing up to do a charity walk are just a few examples of activities you can participate in with your children that benefit others. There are also a lot of smaller jobs that you can do together too. Making a meal for a sick neighbor, raking the leaves for the elderly couple down the street and taking care of a friend’s child for the day so she can rest are simple actions that make a big impact on the outlook your child has toward others.

Take time for yourself – Yes, parents need time on their own. Everyone knows that. Making it happen can be challenging, but don’t forget that your child needs some time to himself too. Whether it is taking a long bath or going for an extended run, be sure to carve out time in the week to spend caring for you. You should also help your child find time for himself as well. He may have a mound of homework to finish, but he is going to be better equipped to work efficiently if he has a little down time in his day too.

By setting a few goals for the New Year you and your family can build a connection and get off to a great start.

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4 Ways to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick!

Posted on December 31, 2017

It’s traditional to mark the beginning of the year with commitments to change, and goals to be accomplished in the next twelve months.

However, it doesn’t take long to discover at the end of the year that we came no closer to achieving those resolutions than when we made them.

Here are four useful suggestions to increase the probability that your New Year’s resolutions will stick this year.

1. Be specific. A resolution such as, “I want to lose weight this year” will probably fail. It is too vague. Be specific: your ideal weight, minus what you weigh now, is your weight-loss goal. Your resolution would then be, “I want to lose 30 pounds.”

2. Make them time specific. Don’t make resolutions that fit the “someday/maybe” category. “As soon as possible” generally means never. A deadline is a commitment. It’s easy to put off getting started, without a deadline as a self-imposed pressure point. Deadlines are also useful for breaking the resolution down into smaller steps. If your goal is to lose 30 pounds by the end of June, that works out to 5 pounds per month, or 1.25 pound per week. Setting a deadline and breaking it down to its smaller requirements makes the resolution more attainable.

3. Take small steps. Change is uncomfortable to start with. The more behaviors we try to change, the more likely we will fail. Pick a couple of things that are most important to you and focus on them. When you reach one or both goals, start a new one. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too much change all at once.

4. Be realistic. We get motivated to change at the start of the year and we think we are ready for anything and everything. Be realistic: there is only so much you can accomplish within a period of time. If the doctor tells you to lose 100 pounds, don’t expect to accomplish that in six months. If you set the bar too high, you are most likely to fail and find it discouraging to get started again.

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Good luck !

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6 New Year’s Resolutions Your Child Can Make and Keep in 2018!

Posted on December 31, 2017

It’s New Year’s Resolutions season.

Adults everywhere are reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the next, finding places where they can improve their lives. Parents often make big plans to change habits and behaviors with this fresh start, and these plans often include their children.

Here are a few New Year’s Resolutions you could work with your child to make.

1.Keep my belongings organized – The first thing that parents need to recognize about this resolution is that it very likely means something very different to your child. Children typically have unique ways of keeping things organized. This frequently stirs friction between child and parent because mom and dad might believe “organized” means that everything is folded, put away neatly and out of sight, while their child might consider things organized if he can find his underwear in the morning. This is a great opportunity for parents to connect with their child. Sitting down and discussing the differences between your view of organization and theirs can actually help a child if it is done though positive conversation. Giving him freedom in this area can go a long way in helping him discover what his organization style is. If there are rules in common areas, parents should be clear about those, but should also allow their child to control how he organizes his own space. This will help him learn to keep it all together.

2.Drink water with every meal. Most people do not drink enough water; this is true for adults and children. Telling a child she cannot have soft drinks or juices anymore will cause aggravation in the child and will only work to make her sneak them elsewhere. By setting the rule that everyone drinks water with each meal, this healthy liquid is introduced without the ban on other drinks altogether.

3. Practice the sport, art or activity of their choice for 30 min every day. Everyone has hobbies or skills they want to improve. Children often beg parents for lessons to learn to play piano or be in basketball, but after the first few weeks of lessons, the excitement fades when they learn they have to practice. Parents can help their children set the goal to practice by finding their own new skill to work on. This way parents and children can work in unison to improve themselves in at least one way.

4. will talk to one new person every week at school. This is a great resolution for the child that has a hard time making friends and connections. It can seem like a leap of faith for a timid child to make new friends, which is why it is so important to start with just one conversation. Maybe only one in every five conversations end in some kind of friendship, but then in a little over a months’ time your child will have a new friend and be confident enough to make more.

5. I will try one new food a week. Children tend to eat the same foods every week. This is due in part to the fact that these foods are easy to make and because parents are tired of fighting with their children to eat new and more healthy foods. This approach addresses the problem in steps. It does not require the child eat entire meals that he hates, just one new food a week. Make the new food three or four times during the week so that he gets a chance to try just one bite a few times. Parents should try to make the experience fun and set a good example by eating the food alongside him.

6. I will help one person every day without being asked. Generosity is a character trait most people believe is absent in children these days. Parents can inspire the development of this habit by encouraging their children to find one person to help or to do one helpful activity each day without being asked to do it. Keep a chart of these activities and praise the big-heartedness that it brings. Try to avoid “rewarding” these activities with material positions because part of generosity is not expecting anything in return. Instead give rewards with kind words and gratitude.

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