Sometimes, as parents the hardest things we face with our kids is when we are not able to create routines for them. Many times I will create the routines and then something comes up and takes us off our daily agreed on routines. But I have to come to believe that our kids actually desire us to create these routines for them.

Example is my 12yr old son…MJ he loves to play games on his ipad and if he had a wish it will be to stay on there all day. No food or sleep with him if he had to choose. MJ is addicted to his ipad games and I don’t blame him if there are no clear routines for him daily to live by.

So this time I think we got the routine down packed. Let your kids help you create the routine for them and make sure some things in their routine involves you. Like with MJ going to the gym every morning is a family routine and everyone in our house knows that so he is not able to have excuses with this routine as we are able to hold each other accountable.

Create routines that match with their own goals. like completing 6th grade maybe a goal for education, so make sure his routine has that in there. Doing school work for 4 hours each day is one of MJ daily routine which will eventually become his habit.

Another thing is to make sure that the routine is in writing and printed so your child can see it and easy access to review it.

Creating routine for your teenager also helps with bonding time with your child. This way you are able to know when your child is busy and when they are not and als making sure your child is getting their chores done daily. It brings more balance in the parents to child relationship.

Make weekends special, yes!!! make sure that their weekends are special and has more of what they value the most. With Mj we know he loves his ipad game time so we only made that available on weekends so he now looks forward to his weekends knowing that if he follows his daily routines he is being rewarded on the weekends, sometimes we do movies, popcorn, out for dinner and sleep overs. But these things happens over the weekend when the daily routines are followed.