Easy New Year’s Resolutions for Kids

Happy new year, mama! Not sure what that means for your brood? Our editor shares some kid-friendly New Year’s resolutions.

Telling them to be nicer to their brother and sister or to listen more to mama is likely to go in one ear and out of the other – and kids won’t go for the fact that they ate too much chocolate over the holiday period and should now abstain from anything sweet for the next few months (the look on my daughter’s face when I suggested it…).

But if you help make a few simple New Year’s resolutions that are easy enough for your little people to strive towards, then this will not only give them a great sense of achievement when they actually fulfill them but also help shape them into the gorgeous human beings you want them to be. And there’s nothing like a good old fashioned reward chart to help them on their way – simply list the resolutions and give them a big smiley face or star when they’ve tried to stick to them.

Here are a few of the resolutions my three will be making (with my help!) this January.

1. Always say good morning and good night to everyone at home. Sounds simple I know but one of them isn’t great at mornings and the other two are currently at each other’s throats from sunup to sundown so I’m hoping that this will help create a peaceful home environment. And it’s just polite. And I’d like to be woken from my slumber with words other than ‘I need…, I want…, he smacked me…etc.’.
2. Always say thank you to whoever has prepared a meal for you. And don’t tell them that you don’t like it or that you want something else or that you’re not hungry after you’ve claimed to be STARVING for the last hour. And on a serious note, we are starting to talk about people around the world who aren’t as lucky as us and who don’t know when they might get their next meal so this is a subtle way for the kids to begin being appreciative and grateful.
3. Try a new vegetable every week. Fruit is easy but the veggies can be tricky – they’ll stick to what they know (carrots, cucumbers, peas) but trying to get them to taste anything different is a near impossibility. This resolution will require me to be fairly creative in the kitchen but that’s ok as I’ll then be ticking off one of my own pledges for 2017! Beetroot brownies or kale chips anyone?
4. Stay in your beds until 7am (okay, 6.30am at a push… but NOT 5am please!). Any tips, mamas!?
5. 2017 is the ‘year of giving’ in the UAE. So I’m going to help my little trio think about how they can give without attaching anything material to it. Giving their time, giving a smile, giving a hand. I’ll let you know how we get on.

And one for the whole family: we will do more of what makes us happy…