Parenting Resolutions Worth Making

Why Set Parenting Resolutions

A new year is a reasonable point to look at how the household is running and decide what to change. A resolution only works if it's specific enough to act on though, so here's how to set one that survives past January.

1. Work Out What the Family Needs

Start from what's actually not working rather than what sounds virtuous. A resolution built on a real problem gets kept, and one built on an abstraction doesn't.

2. Make It Specific and Measurable

Spending more time together is not a resolution, it's an intention. Thirty minutes after dinner with no phones is a resolution, because you can tell whether it happened.

3. Involve Everyone

A resolution the children had no say in tends to collapse quickly. Ask them what they'd want more of, and you'll usually get a more honest answer than expected.

4. Build a Routine Around It

Attach the resolution to something already fixed in the week. Anything that depends on remembering it separately will be forgotten by February.

5. Review and Adjust

Check every few weeks whether it's actually happening. A resolution that isn't working needs changing rather than abandoning, since the underlying need hasn't gone away.

1. More Time Together

The most common resolution is also the hardest to keep, because it competes with everything else. Setting a fixed slot rather than an intention is what makes the difference.

2. Getting Involved in What They Do

Alongside time together, it's worth being involved in the activities a child chooses rather than only providing them. Here are categories worth looking at.

a. Outdoor Activities

Outdoor activity covers most of what a child needs physically while being straightforward to arrange.

• A park or green space nearby
• Cycling somewhere traffic-free
• A playground with room to run
• Something involving water in warmer months

b. Art and Craft

Art and craft works well when the weather doesn't, and a child ends up with something to keep.

• Studio sessions or classes with materials supplied

c. Music and Dance

Music and dance both build coordination and confidence alongside the skill itself.

• Providers offering music and dance training, with current prices worth confirming directly

3. Better Communication

Communication improves when there's a fixed point in the day for it rather than whenever it happens to come up. A meal together with devices away is the usual answer.

4. Teaching Values Deliberately

Values are mostly absorbed rather than taught, which means they follow what a parent does rather than says. Choosing one thing to model deliberately works better than a list.

5. Less Screen Time

Reducing screen time works better when something replaces it rather than when it's simply removed. That's usually why an activity-based resolution outlasts a restriction-based one.

Getting Started

The resolutions that survive are the specific, small ones attached to something already in the week. It's worth picking one or two rather than a list nobody can keep. The Happy Kamper app lists children's activities with locations and current prices shown, which makes the activity-based resolutions considerably easier to actually book.