Helping Your Family Keep New Year’s Resolutions (she: Heather)

Happy New Year! Heather here from FamilyVolley.com. I am so excited to be back as a contributor on OSSS this year. I am passionate about strengthening families and hope to share things with you that help in your home.

By now you have heard a lot about New Year’s Resolutions, but they aren’t just for individuals, they are for families too!

I know, it is hard enough to keep your own personal resolutions and goals. Why would you want to set goals with your family too? Well, because setting goals together and working towards goals, brings us closer as a family. It builds unity, trust and is a great opportunity to teach our children skills and values.

Whether your family has a word of the year, sets resolutions, or you have goals that you want your family to work on this year, here are tips to help your family stick with those resolutions so you can improve and grow together.

Helping Your Family Keep New Year’s Resolutions:

Make resolutions you really want. Your family goals for 2015 should NOT be something you think would be good to do. Or something that you choose because everyone else is doing it, or you have seen it multiple times on Instagram. Take time to honestly evaluate what is best for your family and what your family needs. Don’t worry about what other families are doing.

Don’t set too many goals. Yes, you can set too many goals. Too many goals get hard to focus on and become overwhelming. Two or three is perfect for a family.

Be specific. “Spend more time together” is a good goal, but it is not specific enough. “Spend two hours together as a family every Saturday” is a better goal. Being specific makes the resolution easier for everyone to understand and to know what is expected.

Accept setbacks. Remember, no family is perfect. There will be times when we falter on our goals and resolutions. That is normal and okay. The difference between those families who reach their goals and those who don’t, is the way they react to the set backs. Don’t throw in the towel, solve the problem. Then you can get back on track.

Make it a family affair. It is a misnomer to think that successful family goals are only achieved by the parents. Family goals should include the entire family. This gives our children opportunities to work together, hold one another accountable, allows opportunities for us to teach values and skills, and gives our chidren the chance to see success and failure. And, every family member has great thoughts and ideas and should have a chance to contribute. There have been so many times in our family that our children have been the ones to come up with family solutions. We need to give them the chance to contribute so they know they have a voice in our family. Knowing they are heard helps them feel important, loved and understood. And guess what? When our kids feel important and understand, they will be better behaved. And don’t forget, kids are really good at keeping us accountable too.

Set short term goals for your resolutions. We always hear that we need to set short term goals to reach our long term goals. And it is true. As a family, set a resolution and then set short term goals to help you along the way. Your family will be much more likely to achieve your goals this way.

Have fun and celebrate! Resolutions don’t have to be boring. Find fun ways to achieve your goals and then celebrate your success along the way. This helps to keep it fresh in everyone’s mind, because a year can seem like a really long time, especially for kids.

Are you looking for a fun, creative way to set resolutions with your family? Create a vision board! Have each member of your family sit down with old newspapers, magazines, markers, crayons, and even the computer. Have everyone cut out and print off pictures, words and phrases that represent what they see for your family for 2015. Put them all on a big piece of carboard. Have each family member take a step back and evaluate the themes that are most prevelant on the board. Use the common themes to create two or three resolutions to best benefit your family this year.

I would love to hear what your family resolutions are, for 2015. Share with us!