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Family-Friendly New Year’s Resolutions for Parents

Now that the buildup to 2013 has come and gone and everyone has had ample opportunity to contemplate and commit to New Year’s resolutions, I thought it would be a useful time to look past the hype and consider what really makes for family-friendly and longer-lasting resolutions.

Let me first say that I’m a big believer in the benefits of goal setting, and I do really well with defined start dates – even those that I fully realize are arbitrarily defined. In fact, the thought of starting a New Year’s resolution a day past the first of the year, or failing to follow through for at least six months leaves me feeling unsettled.

My family, however, doesn’t exactly share my attitude. Ask my husband and he’ll tell you that New Year’s resolutions are silly. Not that he doesn’t share my belief in setting goals and sticking to them, but he questions what makes identifying life-enhancing goals and then committing to them on January 1st any different than doing so on June 1st (or any other day of the year, for that matter)?

And if I were to have waited for resolution revelations from my 3 children (one pre-teen and two teenagers), I would have been offered up some vague and non-committal pledges at best – somewhere along the lines of “I think I may try to start running some time this year…if I feel like it.” Given that it’s not uncommon for children to be similarly resolution challenged when left to their own devices, I’ve concluded that it’s not only worthwhile for parents to assist children with choosing resolutions, but to help them pick ones that are both positive and realistic. Better yet, it helps to pick resolutions you can both support and share in as a family.

So just what approach should parents take? It’s interesting to start by considering the most popular adult New Year’s resolutions. No matter what top ten list you look at, it’s likely to include such goals as eating healthier, getting fit, losing weight, getting a better education or job, helping others, and getting organized. Given that these are all things we repeatedly aspire to, it seems to me the best thing we can do for our kids is to join them in setting goals that will help them (and us) lead happier, healthier, smarter and more organized lives right from the start.

Healthier. Having your child commit to such basic things as daily tooth-brushing and regular hand-washing may seem somewhat insignificant in the grand scheme of New Years resolution-making, but they’re really not. In fact, along with making sure your child is up-to-date on immunizations, eats healthy and stays active, hand washing and tooth brushing rank right near the top of ways to stay healthy. As for eating healthier, my own family’s resolution is to eat out less and cook more meals at home using an online menu planner that comes complete with weekly shopping lists and healthy recipes. (www.thefresh20.com)

Happier. When it comes to resolving to be happier, I have two overarching suggestions. The first is to focus on spending more quality time as a family, whether it’s in the form of after-dinner walks, road trips and family vacations together, bedtime books or a weekly game night. The other is helping others – a commitment that has also been clearly shown to make people – children and adults alike – happier. Remember that when it comes to helping others, it can be as simple as teaching young children to use their manners and share their toys or shoveling a neighbors driveway, to volunteering at or contributing to a local non-profit or helping those in need around the world. One of my family’s favorites is a non-profit micro-lending site, kiva.org, where families can read about and help contribute to worthy causes such as supporting education in India, or helping to buy a bull for a farmer in S. America.

Wiser. While there are countless age-appropriate resolutions children can make that will make them smarter, a particularly worthy New Year’s resolution is to simply read more, whether it’s reading aloud every day with your child, your child resolving to learn to read on his own this year, making shared quiet reading time a regular family activity, or committing to reading a certain number of books over the course of the year.

More organized. In case you’re wondering if the tasks might be too mundane to qualify as New Year’s resolutions, having your children commit to such routine tasks as putting away their toys, cleaning their rooms, and sorting/putting away their laundry really do make a difference towards fostering important lifelong organizational skills.

Originally posted on Omaha World Herald’s Live Well Nebraska

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Raising Healthy Kids: Reaching for the Low-Hanging Fruit of Parenthood

For good or for bad, parents today are faced with the fast paced nature of both the real world and a virtual one. Much of the virtually continuous stream of information, videos, tweets and texts we receive on a 24/7 basis relate in one way or another to what we can, should, and/or are expected to do to be good parents. And let’s face it – keeping up with all of the modern-day parenting advice would be hard enough even if all of it was fact-checked for us. Unfortunately, this is not often the case, as much of what we hear, see and read is unfiltered, potentially unfounded, and confusingly contradictory.

Having spent much of my professional career as a pediatrician increasingly committed to making sense of pediatric and parenting advice in both of these worlds, I have found that what parents often want to know from me is simply how to filter the good from the bad and separate fact from fiction.

Knowing that you all are probably as busy as I am, I decided that this week I would distill down to as few words as possible the handful of things I consider to be some of the most well-founded, important things you can do as parents can do to make your kids smarter, safer and healthier. In other words, the following is my list of the “low-hanging fruit” of parenting.

Move more. I feel the need to say this because it’s painfully obvious that it has become incredibly easy for our children (and for us) to barely move in the course of any given day. Whether it’s walking instead of driving to school (or work) or taking an evening walk around the block, getting out of the car instead of rolling your way through drive-thrus, or signing up for organized sports, joining a gym, or participating in more vigorous daily exercise regimens – every step counts towards an healthier life style.

Use restraint. Literally speaking, I’m simply referring to the use of car seats and seat belts in motor vehicles. With motor vehicle crashes clearly identified as the number one cause of death in children, and the correct use of car seats and seatbelts clearly shown to have a huge impact on reducing motor vehicle-related injuries and deaths, taking the time to buckle up comes with a huge return on your parenting investment.

Read. For every parent who has ever asked my opinion on what they can do to help their children become smarter, excel in school, or head down a path of success, reading always factors in to my answer. Reading aloud to babies, toddlers, young children and teens alike not only fosters improved language skills, but also a love of reading that will serve children well for their lifetime. One of my favorite sayings to emphasize this point is that children spend the first few years of school learning to read, and the rest of their lives reading to learn.

Sleep. For parents of infants and young children, this conversation usually focuses on getting children to fall asleep, stay asleep, sleep in their own room, and do so without requiring repeated interventions. For parents of teens, the conversation often shifts to too little and too late. But regardless of your child’s age, it is becoming convincingly clear that instilling your child with good sleep habits is not only a good thing for your own chances of getting a good night’s sleep, but your child’s overall health and well-being.

Wash your hands…and while you’re at it, remember to cover your cough (preferably with your arm rather than your hand) and vaccinate. The fact of the matter is that while modern day science and research is continually coming up with new medicines, treatments and technologies to improve our families’ health and more effectively treat disease, the simple act of teaching our children to wash their hands (which includes committing to consistently doing so ourselves) remains one of the single most effective things we can do to limit the spread of disease. So is protecting against all of the vaccine preventable diseases.

Originally posted on Omaha World Herald’s Live Well Nebraska

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An alternative to Valentine’s Day chocolate: reasons to dance your heart out!

Valentine’s Day is undeniably all about love and sweethearts. It’s also defined by the heartfelt gifts of chocolates, sweets and (candy) hearts so plentiful this time of year. Now it’s not that I think we need to do away with all of these sweet gifts in lieu of a more heart-healthy approach to Valentine’s Day. But it has occurred to me that this holiday could mean so much more when it comes to finding ways for our loved ones to have happy hearts.

To get you one step closer to achieving this goal, I’d like to suggest that you, your kids, and your sweetheart all get up and dance. That’s right…dance! There are several reasons why you and your family should put your best foot forward and get up and start dancing.

It’s Fun. Regardless of age, who doesn’t like putting on some music and just letting loose? The good news is that regular physical activity throughout the day (which could easily include dancing), improves sleep, reduces stress, and overall makes people feel better about themselves. So just break out those dancing shoes (and your toddler’s skid-free socks and tutus) and start dancing. For some added fun – grab your video camera and capture the moment(s). No rules, just fun.

It’s Exercise. I imagine you don’t need me to tell you that we’re in the middle of a nationwide childhood (and adult) obesity epidemic. The beauty of dancing is that it’s not work, it doesn’t require committing to regular trips to the gym, and it doesn’t cost a thing to break a sweat. Yet don’t let this lack of requirements deceive you into thinking it’s not exercise. In fact, First Lady Michelle Obama’s national Let’s Move! Campaign actively promotes the need for kids to get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous active play every day. After all, when they (and you) simply get moving (or dancing!), it all adds up to building and keeping healthy bones, muscles and joints and achieving a healthy body weight.

It’s Quality Family Time. Whether you opt for a daddy-daughter dance, a dance contest, or a more freestyle approach to your family’s dancing, it all adds up to the potential for quality family time. With the hectic pace of parenthood and often over-scheduled childhood that defines the times, I would argue that protected quality time with the family – at the dinner table, during conversations with your child in the car, and when sharing fun family activities like dancing together – is invaluable.

And now for my timely and heart-warming news. As many of you may already know, in addition to being a pediatrician, I also own an educational childcare center – Primrose School of Legacy – located in West Omaha. As one of over 200 franchised centers across the country, I am particularly proud to share with you that from February 1st through March 19th, all your heart-felt family dancing can be for a very worthy cause! That’s because Primrose Schools is hosting the 2nd Annual National Family Dance-off Contest. This fun family-oriented dance-contest is open to all families and benefits the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. By simply uploading a 30-second video of your family’s most creative, unique, or amusing dance moves at www.FamilyDanceoff.com and/or making sure that you and everyone you know votes each day for your favorite Omaha video, you could be one of 14 weekly contest winners who receive a flip video camera and up to $5000, while also winning Children’s Hospital and Medical Center a chance at receiving a $15,000, $20,000, or even $30,000 donation from Primrose Schools!

Simply put, I want to see Omaha families and children getting healthy by eating healthier, getting up and moving, and dancing. And through March 19th, I more specifically hope you all will be dancing to win, not only for yourselves, but for Omaha’s Children’s Hospital and Medical Center. I guarantee you it will do your body, your family, and your heart some good!

Originally posted on Omaha World Herald’s Live Well Nebraska