Do Family Goals Seem To Rigid?
How do you feel about having family goals? Do you feel it can be too formal or too unrealistic to achieve?
I think family goals, in theory, are good if you are not expecting something that isn’t realistic.
I mean if your focus is on making your family goals to look and appear as they do on social media, then you may get a little disillusioned.
So to keep everything grounded and obtainable I advise you to go with goals that are simple and small.
Save those bigger goals that may take longer to achieve, like maybe a family bucket list.
You see, when I get an idea in my mind I tend to just run with it and think about it later.
So when I thought that we needed to start making some family goals I just jumped headfirst.
I started writing down and thinking about all these awesome goals I thought we needed to be doing.
Honestly, I didn’t even ask my family what they wanted I just assumed I knew. That was just one of the problems!
Second, when I started to look at this long list of goals I got a feeling of panic.
How was I going to even try to execute any of these goals when my list of daily goals doesn’t always get met?
All of a sudden I felt defeated before anything ever got started or put in place.
Here’s the deal, I get these lofty ambitions and there is nothing wrong with that but I just didn’t consider all the factors.
I was turning our family goals into jobs that we must complete.
In my mind, I already determined time factors and also didn’t take into consideration of sitting down with my family to make this a family connecting time.
I thought I knew what they wanted just from the various conversation but didn’t do my fact-checking.
This would be a good time where we all play a part in voicing each other’s goals they wanted to do as a family.
So, this is how I back the goal train up and set it back on the tracks!
How Family Goals can make life easier for parents
You are probably asking yourself, How can my life get easier with family goals set in place?
Well, I’m going to answer that for you.
When you are working together with a common goal in mind, save up money within your family.
I want you to look at family goals as being another way of getting your kids to pitch in and help.
If they know it’s a goal then they are more prone to help out where needed.
Make sure that the whole family is following through with the goals you have set.
This teaches them that following through as a team is a good life skill and they need to have as they become adults.
I know with my children if they are aware that we are working together as a team, they seem to be more content and happier.
Everything is moving in a positive direction and I know I’m a more positive parent.
Now that I have established that family goal setting is teamwork and doesn’t need to be complicated.
What goals will work well with your family?
Universal family goals that work for most families
Here are some good examples of what we started with and was very attainable and brought good positive results.
- Making family time a priority. We have a family movie night once a month and try to make special snacks to have with it.
- Another family night we have a game night and that’s always a load of fun around here. We may just get a little too competitive. But it’s all in good fun!
- Get the kids involved in doing age-specific chores.
- Have the whole family come up with their favorite foods and rotate those through your meal plan.
- To add to the above goal I would also encourage to cook as a family at least once a week.
- I know this is a big one but having a screen-free day is always good to free up time and spend time with the family.
- Get fit and active together as a family.
- Pick a hobby or activity that everyone is interested in.
- Depending on your budget but save up money for a family vacation
Avoid these pitfalls when you are planning your goals.
Don’t take on to many goals as a family. This can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time.
If you are going to pick more than one when you are new to the game of planning goals, pick some easy ones.
This will make it more attainable and bring some excitement to see it get accomplished.
Another point I want to add is when you are having those family discussions on what family goals you want to achieve, write them down and put a goal date.
The last thing you need is another to-do list on your mind.
Heres another good way to avoid a stagnant conversation about the goals. Choose a weekend when you have fewer things going on.
After dinner is usually a good time for us and we sit around maybe having a few snacks and take turns coming up with ideas.
Have one person write down these goals in a notebook or whiteboard.
What makes it fun for younger children is to let them choose the color of marker or dry erase pen to write their idea down with.
Brainstorm together and number the goals by what will be easier and sooner to get the goal finished.
Remembering some of these steps will keep you and your family from entering the frustration zone.
Also, be real with your expectations and keep the goals simple and have a ton of fun!
Don’t forget to hang your family goals where the whole family sees it daily.
If you used paper then hang it on the fridge.
Find some space if you use a whiteboard and put it where you and your family hang out.
Make sure your younger children are understanding the goals.
You might need to keep going over the goals and summarizing them up so that it’s more understandable.
Summing up what you have learned
Don’t overload yourself down with too many goals. Be realistic.
If this is your first time in achieving some family goals then I would just pick one at a time/
This does set you up for success.
It’s always good to have weekly check-ins with each other.
This is good because you can determine if something isn’t working.
Support one another if someone is struggling with the family goal.
Keep it simple and have fun achieving your goals as a family.
Celebrate when you have reached a goal.
This keeps the momentum going and everyone gets a sense of accomplishment.
Well, I hope this was insightful and that you will be ready to start your own family goals.
What kind of goals is your family interested in?
I would love to hear from you and all about your family’s goals.
Domestic Engineer Mom
Robbin