Guide your kids to New Year goals, but don’t forget the fun bits

Good start: The new year is a time to have conversations with children on their goals, and making resolutions can be optional.

Here it comes, New Year’s Day, and all those things you and your family want to accomplish because it’s the first day of 2015, a numerically fresh start. Just saying, but a 2013 University of Scranton study found that 8% of people achieve their New Year’s goals.

Part of the reason: Resolutions are often not accompanied by an achievable or realistic plan, says Carrie Krawiec, executive director of the Michigan Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and a practising therapist.