Helping Your Child Set New Year’s Resolutions

The beginning of a New Year is the perfect time to help your child build some good habits and form a ‘routine’ & what better way than using New Year’s Resolutions to make this fun & engaging. What you need to remember as a parent is that the goals need to be realistic and achievable and to help your kid stick to these new habits and/or routine using a reward system as an incentive is beneficial.

Making Resolutions As A Family Should Be Fun:

It’s always important to sit with your kid and help them pick a goal or two. You, as a parent, can even make a list of things you think would be a healthy habit or routine, and can then go over the list with your kid and help him/her pick what they want.

As mentioned don’t make it a task. If you have, for example, on the list, ‘introducing one new vegetable and fruit daily’ then maybe you can balance it with one ‘favourite meal or treat of the weekend’ such as homemade chicken nuggets or ice cream. Similarly, if they pick reading a story every night, then maybe you can have ‘one fun movie every weekend’ that they get to pick. Balance is the key. If you get too strict with your child then your child will see this as a boring, forced on task, so keep it fun and simple.

Below Are Some Of The Examples Of New Year’s Resolutions For Kids:

• I will try 1 new vegetable every day.
• I will wash my hands after using the toilet & before eating.
• I will be kind to animals.
• I will help feed our pet.
• I will help mommy to fold my clothes.
• I will help daddy clean up the table after eating.
• I will try being nicer to my brother/sister.
• I will brush my teeth twice a day.
• I will put my toys away neatly.
• I will eat healthy foods mostly.
• I will play my favourite sport at least thrice a week.
• I will wear my seatbelt in the car always.
• I will read daily to improve my reading.
• I will help recycle.
• I will help save the wildlife.
• I will try to share everything with mom & dad.

Remember to keep these age appropriate. For example, for a teenager a new year resolution could be I will not give in to peer pressure and keep away from bad habits. The best thing to do is have your own set of resolutions such as ‘I will get fit and join a gym’, this way your children will be obliged to take part in the resolutions but not feel that they’re forced in to having resolutions. So are you ready to make resolutions with your kids?