Being a  parent to two young kids (Adam, 6 & Anna, 4)  I often struggle to balance parenthood and a fast growing business –  we call it ‘The Monster’, and yes the monster is always demanding and hungry!

Being an entrepreneur means that I am  never off the clock…evenings, weekends and holidays – I always have to work!

My kids are usually supportive and proud but from time to time they remind me to slow down and put aside work  commitments and simply focus on them for a few hours. This means no SuperME work now Mommy! Sometimes I have to remind myself that the  whole reason why I started all of this was them! 2014 will hopefully be a great year for SuperME with lots of new beginnings and many surprises in the works for you.

Before this new and super busy year starts I wanted to take the time and share with you some of my own private parenthood New year’s resolution:

— Read to them – We try to read at least two books together every day. Reading is a great bed time activity but it could also be a fun afternoon activity – just cuddling on the sofa and sharing a great book. At our bilingual house we try to read to our kids  in two languages since we want them to develop their dual vocabulary skills . My son loves to borrow comic books from the library which is fine with us, however we promise ourselves that this year we will insist more on exposing him to quality chapter books as we want him to be able to focus for longer time periods on a more complex plot.

— Unplug them – like most other kids these days our children have the tendency to be screen addicts…  they can spend hours watching TV, playing on the iPad or on the computers and would not take their eyes off of the screen.  So, three months ago we decided to ban iPads from our home and have not gone back. It was not an easy new reform to introduce but it paid off! I find that both kids are more attentive, happier and engage more in other activities. In the next year our goal is to disconnect from the big screen and not allow TV during week days. It’s not easy I admit and it takes more from us to keep them busy doing other activities but we believe that this is the right step for our family.

— Get them active and involved in sports activities – My daughter loves sports and enjoys soccer and yoga; my son however is less into sports and has other interests in mind. We decided that this year we all need to keep a healthy and active life style and engage more in sports. We signed him up for Karate and he committed to train hard this year and get stronger.

— Empower them – SuperME was created to self-empower kids and teach them how to find the powers they all have within and use them to help themselves and others. We try to raise our kids to believe in their own unique qualities and powers and help save the days in their own special ways. This year we would like to help our own heroes learn how they can help others and be compassionate to others. I would like my kids to be more involved in helping our community.

— Teach them to be responsible and contribute – We always try to make their life so easy and protected that sometimes we  forget that they actually really want to help and do their share. This year I would like my kids to add more daily chores to their responsibilities and help around the house. Setting the dinner table, clearing their plates and yes –this year clean up should be all by themselves – Mommy is no longer responsible to clear that huge pile of Lego blocks in the living room! This is the things that I want for this upcoming year.

— Expose them to different foods – We are all trying to eat healthier and take good care of our bodies. It is not easy to convince my own kids to eat fruits and vegetables and try new dishes as they are quite picky eaters. We often make kid- friendly meals just because we can’t have another food fight with them. This year I would like to try and expose our kids to new foods and introduce their pallets to new tastes. We are getting tired of kid friendly dinners and would like to start enjoying a wider variety of foods.

— Keep plans simple –  With so many options and activities around us we sometimes tend to overwhelm our kids and ourselves with endless activities. A friend recently advised me to sometimes remember to just keep plans simple- our kids tend to enjoy a park play date or a fun home baking session just as much. This year I would like to remind myself not to go over the top planning busy weekends full of activities or enrichment classes on a daily bases; sometimes we just need to play it low and stay home and enjoy a quiet play date.

— Sort old toys and organize –  We have so many toys around our house, we keep on buying and getting toys and our kids’ room are flooded with boxes of toys. I would like to take the time to sort and organize the toys that the kids love and play with and donate the ones that we outgrow. At the same time I would really like to make good purchasing decisions this year and focus on quality, long lasting toys . When we started SuperME we aimed to design a high quality and durable bag/toy that will engage kids in imaginative dress up play and will provide that long-lasting quality; I hope that we succeeded…:)

— Recycle and teach them to be green – I would like to continue teaching my kids to care and keep our world clean and green. Consuming less and reusing more. One of the reasons why we had our patches detachable is because we wanted to allow the opportunity to reflect ever changing interests and to allow handing down a personalized bag by simply replacing a name patch. Also all of our bags are made from EVA,  an environmental friendly material which is safe for kids and the environment. This year my personal goal is to use less nylon bags and disposable packing material when packing my kid’s meals. With that I decided to start designing reusable food sacks- stay tuned for a new line of products.

— Remember to tell them every day that you love them no matter what, that you believe in them and they can grow up to be whatever they want to be. It is your job to help them uncover the hero within…