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happy new year resolutions

Why I Won’t Teach My Kids About New Year’s Resolutions

Sometimes I feel bad for my family. I can be very meticulous and it can translate into the constant need to correct something. There’s fine tuning, analyzing, maybe even over organizing and over analyzing—sometimes the smallest of things. It can get out control if it’s not tamed. I recognize though that there are those times where it really matters. It’s in the many instances in parenting where it’s not just our daily ways of being so carefully followed by our son that influences him. It’s also the instruction—what we choose to introduce and/or approve or not—that influences him. One of those instructions, where my meticulousness does a happy dance, is in teaching about resolutions.

 

happy new year resolutions

 

Resolutions are usually identified with the start of the new year. I’m sure you have had some one ask you what your New Year’s resolutions were at some point in life. A new year in itself represents newness because it is new. BUT, it doesn’t the reset the clock. The clock resets when you say so—when you make a conscious decision for change.

 

A resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something. Resolutions represent a decision for a permanent change. If there is specificity involved, THEN it’s a goal. I think many times people confuse the 2, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m not against resolving to do or not to do, but I am definitely not for the New Year’s resolution thing.

 

At some point, goals, milestones and actionable steps have to be put in place (written down) to go along with those resolutions.

 

 

  • That is where the true value rests.
  • That is what keeps you accountable to eventually become the thing you resolve to be.
  • That is what keeps a resolution from eventually becoming obsolete.

 

That is what I want to teach my children.

 

 

happy new year resolutions

 

Many times, a new year’s resolution goes wrong when a person doesn’t set goals, milestones and actionable steps. The point of a resolution is to continue forward, working towards it every day despite the current date. When December 31st comes and it seems like you haven’t accomplished what you intended, you should keep pursuing. Look at the written intention, and let it inspire you to keep going.

 

I don’t want my children to get lost in the misconception that New Year’s resolutions are the only opportunity to start new, start fresh or try something different. We can do that at any point in time. I want them to understand that to be effective, resolutions can’t operate alone. There has to be a plan of action for a resolution to become realistic and most importantly a lifestyle. 

 

I have one child so far, but I am starting now, especially since he can answer most of my annoying questions.

 

Motherhood’s word of advice (from me to little ones): Choose who you want to be and resolve to be that person. Let everything you do, say and think work towards that person. That way, every day, you are actively making a conscious decision to be that person by moving into measurable goals and tasks (meticulousness doing a happy dance). Never stop trying! Never quit!

 

Now, I don’t expect a toddler to capture all that, so we start in it’s simplest form (or for me through activities). I must say, I love that Peace, Love and Literacy created a “Year In Review,” for children. I think it’s a great tool to do just that. I would tweak it a bit to fit our family, but it’s such a cool starting point.

 

So as a new year every year cycle’s in and out…. 

HAPPY TRAILS!

Wife to an amazing husband, mother to an exploring toddler and an MPA graduate aspiring to impact the world with encouragement in mothering and in social entrepreneurship.

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