How to Set Achievable Goals for Your Kids
“Hey, Mom! Mom. Mom. Mom. Guess what?”
The 7-year-old was ecstatic after school yesterday. Good news was in the offing, I could tell.
“You know my friend, Chase? At school? He’s, like, a boy. At school? In my class? At school?”
Yeah. I think I know Chase. Do you go to school with him?
“Well, he got to go SNOWBOARDING over winter break! SNOWBOARDING, Mom.”
Wow. That is awesome.
“And he tripped over a ROCK and landed on his FACE.”
Aw. Poor Chase.
“And he told our class all about it, Mom. ALL about it. So, Mom? Mom. Mom. Mom. I want to do that, too!”
Oh, geez. We can talk about snowboarding sometime, Son, but we’ll have to save money first, and find some time on the calendar, and research where to go, and it’ll require planning and may take a whi…
“NO, Mom. I don’t want to go snowboarding. I want to trip and fall on my face. That stuff is HILARIOUS.”
Oh my gosh. Thank GOD. This is SO MUCH BETTER than snowboarding. For 3 reasons:
1. As long as you can agree to sustain only minor injuries to your face, thus avoiding medical intervention, we can TOTALLY afford for you to trip on a rock and fall on your face.
2. We can fit tripping and falling into our schedule, like, anytime, without any major carpool adjustments.
3. Way to set an achievable goal, man! Setting bars like this is going to help you accomplish a lot in life. Your list of successes is going to be a MILE LONG, and that’s a plan this mama can support.
Beth is the writer and humorist behind the Five Kids Is A Lot of Kids blog where she writes compelling pieces about pee and sometimes things that matter. She’s been described by readers as “optimistic, authentic, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, [capturing] the mom experience with all its pathos and humor.” You can find Beth on Facebook and Twitter. She also writes at The Huffington Post and was named one of SheKnows.com’s Five Moms Who Will Make You Laugh Out Loud. Beth and her husband, Greg, are parents to five kids who are adopted and homemade, singletons and multiples; some have special needs. Most importantly, Beth says, “they’re all our very own.”
