People often ask me how I get my kids to go along with the choices we’re making in our home. Whether it’s about eating raw vegetables everyday, skipping the ice cream truck or asking them to give me a little space when I chat with a parent in our home about getting healthy.
The answer is simple: I tell them why!
I tried to refrain from “because I’m the Mom” or “that’s just how it is” or “Mom wants to/has to work today”.
I simply tell them what the benefit to them is if I can get my job done.
Together we made a 2010 vision board of goals. Everybody got their own section, searched for pictures of their dreams & goals, and posted them on the board. It hands in the laundry room where everyone has to pass through everyday.
If things get a little hectic in the home (which of course happens!) we simply talk about WHY we are doing what we are doing.
Julianne has the following dreams: swimming with dolphins and legoland in CA. Johanna wants to spend a fancy weekend in downtown Chicago and visit Mickey Mouse.
To help them make their dreams come true we need two things:
1. A healthy family to enjoy the activities.
2. Money to fund the adventures.
Here at Mission: Clean Kids our family enjoys sharing our journey and choices that we are making to work towards our family dreams and goals. There is rarely a struggle in the home when it comes to healthy choices because we have our WHY!
So tell me…why are you making the choices you are making everyday? Are they getting you towards your goals? Is your family involved and supportive? Are you collaborating towards goals rather than frustrating each other? Sitting and talking with your family and children about what they dream about and how you can work together to reach goals is an amazing experience and I can’t wait to continue to see what develops as my children mature.
UPDATE: Just walked through the laundry room and Julianne (7 years old) just wrote on our family goal board – “2010 is SO MUCH FUN!” That is an awesome proud Mom moment to know I’m helping her make dreams come true 
