I know that we’re officially into the new year, but is anyone else still feeling stuck in the post-holiday lull? I know I am! It’s been a bit hard for me to get back into the swing of being productive after having some nice time at home with my family. This week has been all about getting back on track and part of that has been setting my parenting goals and resolutions for 2025.
Why I Value My Productivity Habits and Goal Setting
When I first became an adult I lived a pretty disorganized life, expecting things to come together eventually. As a result, I didn’t really have many accomplishments in my early 20s. Now, I have made setting and evaluating my life goals part of my normal routine. This helps to lower my overall stress and helps me feel productive and, unsurprisingly—I get more things done!
It was natural to incorporate this habit into my new life as a parent. My husband and I had similar goals in mind when planning our family. We want to provide the best life that we can for our child while prioritizing experiences and making memories together. When I set my initial goals for 2025 I made sure to include some parenting resolutions with these priorities in mind.
Why Bother With Setting Parenting Goals or Resolutions?
Parenting goals can be a powerful tool for making positive change in you and your family’s life. In order to take full advantage of this tool, focus on creating realistic goals with easy to follow steps. Your parenting resolutions can be anything: getting your kids on a set schedule, spending more time together as a family, or homeschooling or at-home learning. Identify what is important for your family’s lifestyle and set your goals accordingly.
What are Some Benefits of Setting Parenting Goals?
Setting realistic parenting resolutions can help to keep your goals in perspective while increasing your self awareness as a parent. I know many millennial and millennial-adjacent parents that are actively undoing childhood trauma that we experienced in our youth. Similarly, those of us who choose to have children want to ensure our children have better lives than we had.
Laying down a solid foundation of goals and resolutions puts us in a better mindset, mood, and helps to relieve feelings of anxiety around parenting. When you know where you’re going, the journey in getting there becomes easier.
Your Resolutions Also Affect the Rest of the Family
When you radiate positivity, not only do you receive the positive benefits, but so do the rest of the family. Your kids notice when you’re in a good mood and they notice your new habits. They also notice when you prioritize them, communicate with them, and follow through on your word. When you beam positivity you plant those seeds within your children to follow your example.
Use this time to connect with your partner and develop your joining parenting resolutions. Communicating your desires and aspirations for your children together allows you to create a united presence in your home with your children. When you have aligned goals with your partner, you also avoid potential issues in the future. Parenting can be stressful in many ways, the least of which can be when your ideals don’t align with your partners.
How Do I Set Effective Parenting Goals?
Focus on Small, Achievable Steps
The best way to set your parenting resolutions is to think about what you want to accomplish as a parent. This can be a specific goal or a habit you want to pick up for yourself. Here are a few examples:
Goals with a focus on your child(ren):
- I want to spend more meaningful time with my children.
- I want to travel more with my children this year.
Parenting focused goals:
- I want to be a more patient parent.
- I want to provide more healthy meals for my family.
Take these goals and then break them down into smaller, easy to achieve steps.
- “I want to spend more meaningful time with my children.”
- Spend 15 minutes engaged, device-free in an activity with your children every day.
- Schedule an hour of time to devote to your children on the weekends.
- Implement a no device rule at dinner. Ask your children about their day or think of something throughout the day to talk to them about at dinner time.
- Schedule fun family outings twice a month with your kids.
- “I want to provide more healthy meals for my family.”
- Take some time and write the kinds of foods you like to eat.
- Find healthy alternatives to those meals.
- Create a budget and grocery list for ingredients.
- Prep lunches/snacks twice a week.
- Commit to making 4 healthy dinners a week to start, but leave yourself room for a fun meal.
By breaking down these general goals into smaller steps, you are much more likely to follow through with it. Remember to give yourself grace—no one is perfect all of the time. Start small by focusing on 1-3 areas of improvement to avoid overwhelming yourself and your family with too many resolutions.
A Few More Tips to Help You Meet Your Resolutions
- Create a schedule or routine that supports the goals you have in mind for yourself and your family. You can find some great templates in my Digital Planner.
- Identify any potential issues you foresee in the near future that might prevent you from keeping to your resolution. Once identified, brainstorm solutions to avoid them. This can mean anything from holidays, busy times during the work season, etc.
- Understand that setbacks will happen, avoid self criticism and focus on the progress you’re making.
- Adjust goals as needed and remember to celebrate small victories. I like to revisit every few months.
Let Your Resolutions Work For You
Parenting resolutions can be a great tool to help you stay organized and accomplish any parenting related goals you might have for yourself. Remember to keep your goals realistic and break them down into specific steps that are easy to achieve. Meet yourself where you are and take the steps to get where you want to be.
If you are needing any help setting your personal goals, feel free to reach out to me! I’d love to talk and help the ladies who read my blog become the best women and moms they can be.
Until next time <3
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