How To Set New Year’s Resolutions With Your Kids

And just like that, we’ve bid adieu to 2024 and welcomed a New Year. Every January, we set new intentions and goals we want to accomplish over the year. Here’s how you can get your children involved. 

Lucinda Cross, mother of three, motivational speaker and life coach, makes setting resolutions a family tradition because it’s something her mother did for her and her siblings. “Now I pass it down to my kids,” she says. “Every year we have a family vision meeting. I sit them down and ask, “What’s one thing you want to get better at this year?” 

Setting Goals

Setting goals brings clarity to your life. But what is even more important is setting attainable goals to avoid feelings of failure or frustrations. “For my 14-year-old, I make it fun and simple,” explains Cross. “For the older ones, I remind them how small steps lead to big wins. We set goals, break them into steps, and celebrate share what is the reward they want to celebrate the small wins.”

What are some easily resolutions you and your child can tackle together? 

A list of resolutions you can tackle easily with your child are: organizing, saving, working out, drinking water, chores, sports goals, grades, visiting loved ones, doing acts of kindness by volunteering, and school attendance even for the ones in college. Some things I have done and still do one of our favorites is family date nights. Whether it’s a movie binge at home, it’s our time to laugh, talk, and just enjoy being together it’s called Unplug. We also set savings goals as a team. Each of us contributes, even in small ways, toward something exciting.

It’s a way for them to unplug and focus and we all get clear as a family and then I talk about the importance of them creating a vision and goal board for their personal aspirations. It’s not about being perfect—it’s about growing. This is how we keep pushing forward, together as a family.

What are some tips for maintaining resolutions well into the new year?

Sit down with your kids and talk about everyone’s resolutions, including yours and the families as a whole. Create a family chart or tracker to keep tabs on progress, I recommend assigning someone to be the resolution accountability president of the house for the month and everyone takes turns each month to hold a family. meeting keep updates and have a fun reporting system. Turn it into a fun check-in. it’s important to celebrate wins together, use words of affirmation and even incentives, no matter how small, and remind them that it’s about progress, not perfection. Accountability works both ways, and it builds trust and gives everyone responsibility. Posting the resolutions in an area they can each check-in and report and see their progress is important. Since my children are older and most kids are tech savvy use apps like Google Keep or Habitica which is a fun productivity app for free that everyone can use.

Follow Lucinda, here.