It is that time when we start thinking about how we are going to change our personal behavior in the new year. The most common New Year’s resolutions usually involve losing weight or exercising more, but this year try making some “family” New Year’s resolutions – habits or practices you want to work on as a family. Resolutions typically involve individual achievements, but these will require a complete family effort. Hopefully, as with any New Year’s resolution that is kept, the payoff will be worth it.

So what is the best way to go about making these family New Year’s resolutions? First, get input from everyone in the family. If your children are a little older, this can be a fun activity in which everyone can participate. Also, if everyone is involved, there is a higher chance you will stick to the resolutions. For younger children, it might be something parents work on together and then share with the children. Next, make sure the resolutions are relevant and realistic. Do not set your sights too high and then get frustrated when the goals cannot be reached. Think of resolutions that are specific to your family and age appropriate for everyone involved. Finally, once you decide on your goals, write them down and post them somewhere where they are visible to everyone. This will make it easier to help and encourage each other. Our family got a jumpstart brainstorming and here are some of the ideas we came up with:

• More family meals. With such busy schedules, it is easy to forget just how important it can be to sit down as a family and eat together. Between soccer practice, homework and bath time, it can be hard to carve out time to eat as a family – all the more reason to pause several times a week to sit down together. Our family is going to make a weekly calendar and whether it is breakfast or dinner, we are planning our family meals. Shared meals are a wonderful and important opportunity to listen to your children, talk to your kids, and to impart your values (including good table manners).

• Focus on nutrition. We also want to work on making the snacks and meals in our house more nutritious. For us, this means a little less pizza and mac ’n‘ cheese and a few more veggies. Easier said than done, I realize. My plan of action is going to include having the children look through cookbooks with us for some fresh ideas – usually the pictures help to spark some interest. The second part of my plan is going to involve including them more in the preparation of snacks and dinners. This will require some more patience on my part, but I am hoping the more they are involved, the more likely they will be to try what they have helped prepare.

• Be more involved in our neighborhood and community. It is important to improve our health, but I also want to teach our children the importance of giving back and caring for our surroundings. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful place where there are wonderful opportunities right in front of us. Each month we are going to try to do something for the environment or for someone in our neighborhood. This might include helping plant trees in the Presidio, a beach cleanup, or donating clothes or food to one of our City shelters.

These are big goals to tackle, but I think that with each one there are simple actions we can take as a family to improve our health and make a difference in our community.

I hope you find these ideas helpful and maybe even a guide for creating your own family’s New Year’s resolution list.

Liz Farrell lives in San Francisco and is the mother of two young children. She was formerly a television producer in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. E-mail: [email protected]