Great Families, Bad Habits

Do you ever take a step back and realize that your family has fallen into a bad habit? You are not alone! Sometimes even the best of families develop bad habits without even realizing that it is happening. Here are a few common bad family habits and how you can take steps to break them.

Slacking on Household Chores

You may have been the type of person that always had a clean house at some point in your life; but now your home is filled with children and all of the toys, clothes, sippy cups and diapers that come with them. It’s hard to keep it all in line. And when you do get the house clean, it’s only a matter of minutes before it’s a mess again. It’s enough to make you want to throw in the towel completely.

The first step toward a tidy home is decluttering. Get rid of the things you aren’t using…that will make your job much easier on a day-to-day basis. Next, break down your chores into small steps. Don’t try to clean the house all in one day. You will work yourself to the bone and burn out. Instead, make a spreadsheet of all of the chores and cleaning that need to be done each week and tackle one or two items on the list every day. It should only take 15-30 minutes each day, and by the end of the week your house will be clean! Topeka mom Tori Forrest includes her children in the cleaning routine by setting aside 10 minutes each day for everyone to tidy up their rooms and make their beds. Save big chores like cleaning out closets for days when you have a few hours and the kids are in school or being entertained by your spouse.

Eating Junk

Whether you are eating out too often or eating whatever junk you have lying around at home, it’s easy to fall into the trap of eating too much junk food when you have a busy family. If you haven’t made it to the grocery store in a week and you are running from school to practice and trying to fit in homework somewhere, it’s so much easier to just swing through a drive-through or order a pizza than to come home and make a big dinner for the family. But, as we all know, this lifestyle is hard on the wallet AND the waistline—and you are also missing out on precious family dinners.

To solve this problem, you must adopt the art of meal planning. Instead of worrying about what’s for dinner at 4:00 every day, spend some time once a week planning out your meals for the whole week. Come up with 5-6 dinner ideas and make your grocery list based on the ingredients needed. To save money, base your list on what is on sale that week. Kansas City mom Gwyn Dill says, “I now plan out our meals and grocery shop on Sunday for the week. If I do this, then I can't slack during the week or the food will spoil. So I'm way less likely to cheat by opting for take out.”

Bending the Rules

Whether it’s letting your kids stay up late to play outside on a nice evening, giving them extra treats on vacation or skipping the nighttime toy cleanup because of soccer practice, sometimes bending the rules is fine. But it is so easy for a one-time privilege to turn into a new habit. Kids love to get a little break from the rules, so expect that if you let them stay up late one night they will want to do it the next night, too.

Sometimes this kind of situation can lead to parents’ taking a step back and realizing that maybe it’s time to change the rule (perhaps the kids are old enough for a later bedtime). But if it’s time to go back to the status quo, the key is to let your kids know that the days of late bedtimes/more treats/no chores are over. Then, most importantly, STICK WITH IT. Kids need consistency, so at least for awhile, don’t make any more exceptions to the rule until the routine is firmly engrained in your family life again.

Whatever your family’s bad habit is, rest assured that it’s never too late to make a change and get your family back on track. Careful planning and communication will lead to harmony and order once again!

Sara Keenan lives in Brookside with her busy family and has recently had to break the habit of eating on the go too much.