New Year’s Resolutions have a habit of abandoning us (or is it the other way around?); sometimes just days after we make them!
A new movement has begun to abandon all individual resolutions in exchange for New Year’s Family Resolutions. Not only is this a fabulous way to ensure your family starts spending more time together and appreciating each other more, but you are no longer accountable to only yourself! That’s right. Certainly you’re not going to tell your kids you can’t follow through on your commitment to spend more quality time together…
So if you plan on partying New Year’s Eve in Ticonderoga restaurants, bars and pubs, be ready on January 1st to sit down with your loved ones and list the following ways to become a closer family in 2015!
Family Resolution #1: Sit down to dinner
It’s a fact…eating together and communicating at a TABLE = kids who are less likely to smoke, drink, do drugs, and fail their classes. It also provides the opportunity for all members of the family to share and voice concerns, which leads to better communication within the family. Cooking dinner and then sitting down together also has the added benefit of determining what the family is eating, so eating healthy can be a part of this resolution. Going out to eat as a family is a great way to reconnect. Check out southern Adirondack and Ticonderoga restaurants and make it a family adventure to try them all out!
Family Resolution #2: One Day a Week…Cut the Cords!
Picking one day a week to cut the cords – say a “No Electronics Sunday” – allows your family time to reconnect with each other. If your family does a pretty good job at connecting with one another, unplugging once a week forces us all to do new or different things:
- Read a book (an actual book…one with covers and a binding)
- Cook together
- Help out around the house together
- Card or board games
- Arts & Crafts
- Attending events in Ticonderoga and the surrounding area.
Family Resolution #3: Go Outside. Seriously.
And not just on your way to the car. Pick a day on the weekend, or whenever your schedule allows, and enjoy the outdoors together. This promotes activity, which is always a positive thing, and there are plenty of cold weather activities, events, and family fun in Ti – whatever the season!
Family Resolution #4: Stop Overbooking Yourselves!
Today we have all sorts of activities available to keep every member of the house busy day-in and day-out. Between school and homework, careers, sports, and clubs, being able to come home and relax by spending time with the fam just doesn’t seem to happen much anymore. If the members of your family have every minute of every day scheduled, consider having them choose among some of the activities they are doing. While extra-curricular activities are good for physical and mental well-being, staying stressed is not. Allowing for free time is important for our psyches. Sometimes too much structure is not a good thing.
Family Resolution #5: Opt to Be Happy!
While this sounds simple enough, the pace of our lives today can leave us stressed and hot-tempered. As a parent, how you handle stress – and life in general – is going to establish what sort of atmosphere you have at home. We all have enough stress in our lives; home should be the place where we can unwind, laugh, and just be ourselves. Control your temper and realize that the world doesn’t end if you don’t return that phone call or you skip karate for a family movie night. If you create a laid-back atmosphere with love and laughs, your kids will do the same. Encourage everyone to laugh and be happy!
Ticonderoga360.com is your guide for family fun and things to do in Ticonderoga NY, Schroon Lake, Crown Point, and the entire Champlain Valley Region of New York!