Children and New Year's Resolutions

What are New Years’ resolutions? Wishes, plans for improving physically, emotionally, financially; promises for change, commitments and new beginnings. It should not only be a time to look ahead, we should take advantage of this time to look back and evaluate what we have done and accomplished. A time to ponder, value, be grateful and learn.

This is a wonderful time to get children involved in thinking about their accomplishments, reflect on the year and plan for the year ahead. Children benefit from routines; school, dinner times and bedtimes. Also, what we take for granted many times is the importance of having family rituals, such as birthday celebrations, religious events or just made up gatherings, sayings, secrete handshakes or nicknames that are significant for the family.

New Years’ resolutions can be a wonderful ritual for the whole family. It is a time to think about your accomplishments for the coming year. Most children learn from their past accomplishments as well as their past mistakes. By listening to your children’s resolutions you can learn a lot from them, such as their aspirations, worries, frustrations and hopes, just to name a few. This goes both ways. By you sharing your resolutions with your children, they get to know you better, what is important to you, what you value and what your priorities are.

You can also understand how your family feels about their troubles, therefore everybody can help each other with what they hope to accomplish. What is the biggest problem with New Years’ resolutions? Giving up too soon. If you have family support and involvement, if everybody is working on themselves we believe you are more likely to keep your dreams from falling. If everyone gives up you will never know what could have happened in the future.

As my daughter Rebeca says: “Resolutions are very important for everyone to have accomplishments, hopes, and dreams. Most children have resolutions but aren’t sure if they can follow their resolutions for the coming year. It is hard for some people to commit to what they said they would do, like a resolution. It is very important to follow what you want to accomplish. If people never try they will never know. Resolutions can help children’s futures in many ways. It can help them find jobs and stop bad habits. Every year children say what they want to do in the future and hope to accomplish it.”

Take time to ponder on your past and your future, set goals and determine priorities, but remember to live in the present and enjoy every moment.

About the Author

Mind Spectrum Institute located in North Miami Beach, Florida specializes in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and ADD/ADHD in children and adults.

Source: www.articletrader.com