I have been toying (terrible pun NOT intended) with the idea of wiritng a blog for a while now. However, everytime that I have started typing I have worried that I won't be able to write one, I don' t have the skill to write or that people won't read it.
Anyway, I decided that my own NY resolution would be to actually write it and stop all the self doubt! So here goes, my first blog... (thanks for reading! 🥰)
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As parents, we have always wanted our boys to be raised to be reflective and believe in themselves. A part of that is having the ability to set themselves small, achievable goals so why not start with one that most people do - a New Year resolution.
We chatted about how to pick sensible goals that a young child could achieve and appropriateness. In the end, we decided that Little Bee is too young at the moment (he turned three a few weeks ago) so it will just be Big Bee making a resolution this year.
Our first step was to write down some simple things that a seven year old might want to improve or aim for e.g. making his own bed each morning etc We wrote down a list of 9 possible resolutions (making sure that we added phrases like, 'try to’ so that they sounded achievable for a child - we don't want to set him up to feel disheartened if he forgets one day). Then we chatted to him about what a resolution is and showed him the ideas list. We asked him if there were any ideas that he might like to add to the list. He replied, “Make sure I get on the good list again for next Christmas!”. Hmmm 🤔 not quite the response we were hoping for (cue hand-over-eye moment). We ended up explaining the concept again and he came up with some good ideas.
Here is a photo of our list:
Finally, we read the whole list back to him and gave him some time to pick one goal as his resolution. He chose two:
Helping to set the table and learning to do a ‘duck/flip turn at swimming.
We plan on helping him make a poster so he can stick it up in his room as a reminder.
Like all my past resolutions, it might be abandoned by January 3rd but we thought it was worth having a try - even the process of talking it through with him might help to explain goals for the future. I will post about our progress and let you know what happens.
Have you ever helped a little one make a NY resolution? Maybe you have had some experience with setting goals for younger children like Little Bee? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts...
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year! x