Goal Setting for Mom

Laura Rolands of My Attention Coach

I honestly love this topic.  As moms, we tend to set family goals, work goals and goals for how we can support others.  Unfortunately, our own goals, those intended for our own personal benefit tend to get pushed to the bottom of the list.  We can list all the reasons why this happens, but I suspect you already know the reasons!  Let’s move directly to setting and achieving our goals.

What Goals?

What goals would you like to achieve over the next three or four months?  Grab a piece of paper and write them down.  Brainstorm and list anything that comes to mind.  Does it seem outrageous?  Good!  Does it relate to your kids more than you?  Write it down anyway!  Keep going until you have at least 10 goals written down.  I would love to see 20 goals, but I’ll take 10!

Priorities

Next, go through and prioritize your goals.  Stop for a moment before you prioritize.  I would like you to take a different approach to prioritizing these goals.  Review each goal you wrote down and cross off any that involve someone else or are on the list for someone else’s benefit.  Now, take a look at the remaining goals.  They should all be focused on you.  Which one of these goals is the most important and/or would make you the happiest if you achieve it (or even part of it)?  I encourage you to make this one your top priority goal.

Make it SMART

I am a huge fan of SMART goals.  The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  When you make your goals fit these criteria, you significantly increase your chances for achieving them.  For more information on SMART goals, head over to my blog and search for goals.

Plan Your Actions

After selecting your goal (or goals), write 5 action steps that need to be completed in order for you to achieve them.  You might need more than 5, but this will be a good start for you.

What goals did you set?

Let us know in the comments and how we can support you!

Laura Rolands is the founder of LSR Coaching and Consulting, LLC. She is a coach whose passion is to support, lead and inspire independence and success for people who have either been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or who are facing other attention-related challenges. Her clients include individuals with attention-related challenges and/or their parents. If you have any questions or more suggestions to add, please visit her website at www.MyAttentionCoach.com.

Tips for Surviving Summer

By Susan Heid of The Confident Mom

Summer can end up being the best of times, creating memories that last a lifetime, but it can also be the worst of times if your kids are bored and you lose your cool!  A great summer just won’t happen on it’s own!

You can make it the best for your family by taking the opportunity to do some advance planning and preparation..

Planning for Success

Before summer begins gather your kids together and ask  what they would most like to be doing and learning over the break.   Here is a great handout to get the juices flowing;  Ideas for Summer .  You can then take the time to discuss the  ideas and you’ll have a master list to choose from.  After you have reviewed the answers, sit everyone down and brainstorm what is possible to fit in your summer plans, considering  your family budget as well as allowing everyone the opportunity to have input.  You can use a big poster board to write ideas on and then post it somewhere that everyone can view it throughout the summer.

Be Flexible

Don’t be too rigid about the summer schedule – it can be just as easy to become over-scheduled during the summer months as it is during the school year.  Be ready to delete something from the schedule if the kids are having fun in an activity – at the same time don’t make promises that can’t be kept or you are uncertain you will keep.  This will keep disappointment at bay and keep the trust between you and your child you so desperately need.

Maximize Your Resources

Hopefully you have already realized that you cannot do everything yourself!  But you can network with other parents and use community resources to your benefit.  Send out an email or phone a few families in your neighborhood or church to coordinate activities together.  You can even set up to swap kids once a week in order to give you a break.  When you take the other mom’s kids it will then give her a break and create a fun dynamic for your kids too.  A win/win for everyone!

Investigate any children’s programs offered in your community.  Often you can find free concerts and learning programs at libraries, or parks and recreation departments.  Don’t’ forget vacation bible school and other youth program offered by churches.

Be Relaxed

It may be the perfect time to set a different list of expectations for the family.   Maybe you can set aside your need to keep a spotless house for a different, less time consuming standard.  This doesn’t mean everyone gets to leave their things lying around or leave big messes behind, but it does lighten up the standards.  Talk about summer chores as well as summer bedtimes.

Encourage Creativity

Remember, you do not have to answer that inevitable whine that will come, “I’m bored.”  As I see it you are the one offering opportunities and activities to your children at different times, but you certainly are not their entertainment.  Step back and let them figure out what they can do instead of jumping in and taking on the responsibility of figuring out what they can do.

I can remember playing outside for hours and hours when I was young and I can say for certain that my mom didn’t come up with idea after idea of things for us to do – we thought things up on our own because we had to!  Imagination is something your child should be encouraged to use – with so much structured time our kids are often left with no time to be creative and honestly do not know what to do when they are given the opportunity.  Find time during the summer to inspire them to be imaginative.

If you need help with summer planning, make sure you check  my website, www.theconfidentmom.com –  I will be offering a FREE seminar just for moms “10 Tips for Summer Survival” before the end of the month.    You won’t want to miss it!

Susan Heid loves inspiring Christian moms to make small changes managing their home and family life giving them more time, order and less stress! As a Certified Parent Coach and Family Manager Coach she enjoys sharing her expertise with moms through workshops, teleseminars, public speaking, and individual and group coaching.  She is a proud mom, step-mom and foster mom to 3, married to her very own prince charming, loves coffee, cloudy days, and does think the “bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle.”  Make sure you get a copy of her FREE ebook, “Getting Kids to Cooperate and Become Team Players.”

Get Kids to Listen without Nagging, Reminding or Yelling!

Families With Purpose is excited to partner with Amy McCready, founder of Positive Parenting Solutions, to offer a free live training webinar on Wednesday, May 18th from 9-10 PM EASTERN Time.

The webinar is…Get Kids to Listen without Nagging, Reminding or Yelling and Amy McCready promises that we’ll walk away with concrete tools we can use the next day and see results. I know you’ll be especially interested in learning the 5 R’s of Fair and Effective Consequences. You can watch, listen and even interact with Amy. Participants are not required to have a webcam, only a computer with speakers. Read more

Celebrate Mom

By Beth Engelman and Jenna Riggs of Mommy on a Shoestring

This Mother’s Day, treat your favorite mom to glitz, glamour, food, fashion and fun with these easy to make gift ideas.

The Mom Spa

This idea comes courtesy of Stacey Rhoades, who came up with the idea of a Mother’s Day Spa with the help of his two sons.  Creating a lovely at-home spa is relatively easy to do.  It just requires a little planning and preparation.

The Night Before

• Prepare chocolate covered strawberries by melting one bag of chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening over a double boiler.  Dip large, fresh strawberries in melted chocolate and place on wax paper to set.  Place strawberries in the refrigerator overnight.

Mother’s Day Morning

• Choose a comfortable room to convert into the spa.
• Set the mood by dimming the lights, lighting candles and playing soft soothing music.
• Place chocolate covered strawberries on a platter with a few napkins.
• Prepare a “Momosa” drink by combining one part Orange Juice with two parts Sparkling Water.
• Fill a large plastic bowl with warm soapy water.  Pour in 1-2 tablespoons of Epson Salt and a few drops of essential oil.  Be sure to place a few towels under the bowl to protect the carpet or floor.
• Invite Mom to soak her feet in the “tub” while she eats her chocolate covered strawberries and sips her Momosa.
• The children can take turns giving mom a pedicure by massaging her feet with lotion and a pumice stone.  If a pumice stone feels too rough, try using rocks from the back yard.
• Finally, apply clear nail polish to give Mom’s feet a glamorous glow.

“Go Fish with the Family” Card Game

This card game is a great gift for Grandmothers who are sure to enjoy playing it with their grandchildren.  Another bonus is that there is always room to “grow” the deck.

Materials Needed:

• Camera
• Double stick tape, or a glue stick
• Several pieces of cardstock (one color)
• Scissors

Instructions:

• Take pictures of each family member and develop the pictures in duplicates (3×5 or 4×6 is fine, just make sure all the pictures are the same size).
• Turn the pictures into playing cards by gluing or taping a piece of card-stock to the backside of each picture.
• Game ideas include “Go Fishing with the Family” which is similar to “Go Fish” but, instead of matching numbers, the object is to collect matching pairs of photos. “Memory” is another fun game to play.  Place the cards face down in a grid and try to find matching pairs of photos.

Spread Good Cheer (and Decorate it too!)

A fun way to honor your mother and spread some good cheer is to organize a “Drop in and Decorate” party.  Drop in a Decorate (www.dropinanddecorate.org) is a non-profit organization that encourages folks to give back by baking.  The idea is to invite family and friends over to decorate cookies that can be donated to local area charities such as Ronald McDonald House or Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital.  For more information including recipes, decorating ideas and tips on how to host a party, visit www.dropinanddecorate.org.

Jenna Riggs and Beth Engelman are the creative talents and owners of Mommy on a Shoestring, a website and weekly radio show chock full of ideas on how families can live creatively and large on a small budget.

IN THE BEDROOM WITH DR. LAURA BERMAN

Harpo Studios And OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network Are Reaching Out To Moms In The Midwest!

Have you lost the spark in your relationship?

Is a lack of intimacy causing conflict between you and your partner?

Is one of you struggling with issues relating to sexual identity?

Are you desperate to reconnect but don’t know where to turn, or don’t have the resources to get the information you need?

Dr. Laura Berman can help! Read more