Setting New Year's Resolutions
Helping Your Tween Set Goals for a New Beginning
Making resolutions seems like fun to a tween. It's a chance to start over and make things better. Help them set resolutions that they can stick to.
It’s that time of year when most of us are scrambling to make a new year’s resolution we can stick to. It is hard no matter what you resolve to do this year—whether it is losing ten pounds or getting organized. Imagine how hard it is for your tween child to make and stick to a sensible New Year’s resolution. If your tween comes to you and wants to make a change, here are some tips that will guide your through helping your child make a resolution.
Why Make a Resolution?
You might wonder why your child wants to make a resolution, or you might be the one pushing your child to make a change. Whatever the case may be, you need to sit down with your child and discuss why he or she should make a resolution. For tweens, the ability to "do it all" is impossible and overwhelming.
Most kids that are between the ages of 9 and 12 are unorganized, unmotivated a lot of the time, and they need help! If this sounds like your child, find out the reason why she wants to make a resolution. Perhaps you tween wants to make better grades, or he wants to be nicer to his siblings. Let tweens talk out the reasons and ask them questions about why it is important to them. This will help them clarify their thoughts on making any type of change.
Take Little Steps
The next thing that you can do when you want to help your tween with a new year’s resolution is to figure out what it will take to reach the goal and then take little steps to get there. It is simply too much for your tween (or even an adult) to say, "I will get completely organized." Instead, make a list of small steps to take to reach that goal, such as, "By the end of the week I will clean out my locker," or "I will make sure my homework folders are organized each day." It will be much easier to accomplish any task when the goals seem "do-able" over a period of time.
Time Does Matter
That brings us to the next point—time. You must help your child realize that it is simply not possible to bring about any change immediately. It takes time, sometimes days, sometimes months to reach a goal. For example, if your child wants to save $200, he or she must know that it will take work and time to get to that point. Realizing this will make it easier in the end.
Track Progress
Last of all, you will want to help your child track his or her progress. You may have a chart that your child fills out each day or at the end of the week. Perhaps just talking to your child about his or her accomplishments will be sufficient. When your child sees that goals are being meet, he will feel much more confident and successful as he reaches towards bigger goals.
Read more about parenting tweens at Suite101.
