Setting Allergy Mom Goals That Empower Your Family For Life
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It’s that time of year! A time to reflect and plan for the year ahead.
As food allergy moms, we’re no strangers to planning—we plan meals, we plan for emergencies, and most times, we even plan backup plans! But what about setting intentional food allergy goals for ourselves and our families?
In today’s episode, we’re talking all about creating meaningful goals that make allergy life safer, more confident, and and—dare I say—even less stressful.
Whether it’s building life skills with your kids, becoming a better advocate, or even introducing a new food, this episode is here to help you set intentional goals that not only make life with food allergies more manageable today, but also build the skills and confidence your kids need to grow into empowered adults, so that you can raise kids who live safely with food allergies and thrive with them.
What Allergy Mom Goals Will Empower Your Family?
This year, something incredible happened. My daughter, who has faced the challenges of food allergies her entire life, achieved a milestone I wasn’t sure we’d ever see: she went on an overnight trip with her band, which included a flight on an airplane. Yes, I went along as a chaperone, but I wasn’t about to spend every moment by her side helping her because that just isn’t cool.
Let me set the stage. When the trip was announced, my stomach did a little flip. Overnight trips are stressful enough for parents, but when you add severe food allergies into the mix? It’s a whole different ballgame. The thought of her navigating meals, snacks, and potential exposures in a group with little control and time restraints was daunting.
But here’s the thing—we’ve spent years building her skills, confidence, and independence. She knows how to read labels, advocate for herself, and carry her emergency medications everywhere she goes. And while she’s still my baby, she’s also growing up.
So, we got to work preparing for this adventure. We started early, meeting with her band director to make sure everyone understood her needs. We created a detailed plan, covering everything from the snacks she’d bring to how she’d handle meals. We even packed some backup meals just in case.
Before she left, we found safe food options for every meal, and yes, one day we went to a place called Granville Island Market, and there was only ONE place where she could get safe food. We talked about what she would do if it happened to be closed, or it turned out not to be safe once we got there. We were ready with all the backup plans.
And you know what? She nailed it.
She advocated for herself when needed, and she followed every step we’d planned. Her bandmates and chaperones were supportive, and she had an amazing time.
This trip wasn’t just a win for her. It was a win for us. It reminded me that all those hours spent teaching, planning, and worrying are worth it. It was proof that with preparation and support, she can chase her dreams!
I hope that story encourages you, and shows you how important all that work we do as food allergy mamas is.
But I know many of you have younger kids, and you might be wondering how do we turn those big dreams and wins into practical steps that we can use RIGHT now to help our kids become independent.
Well, I think that goal-setting is one tool we can use.
Setting goals (even small ones) can help reduce overwhelm and build confidence today and tomorrow.
Goals don’t have to be complicated—sometimes it’s as simple as finding one new recipe or teaching your child a new skill.
But it’s important to think long-term. For example, the habits and activities that you model in the next year will influence how your child acts in the future. I know that all of us want kids who grow into confident adults with good allergy habits, and so we should let this long-term goal guide our actions today.
What will move you closer to that goal of having a confident child with good allergy habits? If we know that, we can think about the habits and activities to model. Do you want to model fear and missing out, or are you hoping to model confidence and preparation?
The goals will be different for each family, but it’s so important to consider what the long-term goal is so that we can take a series of small steps that move us toward that long-term goal. Because small steps over time add up to HUGE change!
A note to those hoping to outgrow an allergy or doing OIT or TIP: Don’t use this as an excuse not to prepare your child. Unfortunately, sometimes kids DON’T outgrow their allergies and treatments are not a cure, which means your child will still need to be prepared. Don’t wait because it’s easier to train them in the younger years.
What Mom Goals Should You Choose?
Now that you know why setting food allergy goals as a mom or family is important, let's break down the potential goals into manageable categories.
This will help you think more clearly about what is important to you and your family and when you know what’s important, you can then choose the goals that work for you.
I’m going to break this down into 5 Food Allergy Goal Categories. Remember, your stage of life and season may mean that you have a lot of goals in ONE area, and none in the others. You don’t have to make goals in every category. Just pick what is most important to you right now. Next year, if your priorities change, you can then choose different categories to work on.
Category 1: Empowering Your Child
I know it can feel overwhelming, but our kids are going to grow up faster than we think. Teaching them how to read labels, self-advocate, and even practice using an epinephrine trainer sets them up to handle life on their own. These aren't skills you learn overnight, so starting now—step by step—makes the transition smoother when the time comes.
If your child is aged 2-8 or 9, I have a free checklist of skills that you can use as a great starting point to make this clear and easy for you. It’s free and you can go to www.friendlypantry.com/empowerment to grab it now.
Category 2: Advocacy
You will use this skill ALL THE TIME, and it means improving communication with teachers, family members, and hosts at social events. If this is on your list of goals for this year, I highly recommend you check out my Social Event Survival Pack, and my School Allergy Template & Success Pack. Both of these will improve your advocacy skills right away, without having to learn the hard way over many many years like I did.
Category 3: Self Care
Honestly, I used to roll my eyes whenever I would hear about self-care as a food allergy mom. It can seem superficial, and inconsequential when food is something you need to protect your child from.
BUT, I learned the hard way that finding time for your mental and physical well-being is important.
Because we all have only 24 hours in the day.
That means that because food allergies take up a lot of that time, you may not be able to be as involved in other things. For me, I had a season where I had to limit my volunteering at church. I had to volunteer less because I simply couldn’t volunteer AND manage food allergies and everything else. If you’re working outside the home, that’s another thing to consider. Don’t overbook yourself. It’s ok to keep things manageable. NOBODY else will know what it’s like to live with food allergies, so it’s important to keep your boundaries. I overextended myself and ended up with Shingles which was a painful and hard way to learn this lesson. I hope I can save you from something like that! Go to episode 14 to hear the full story.
Category 4: Community
This goal is about improving food allergy awareness in your community, or giving back to the food allergy community. This may be more or less important depending on the stage you’re in. My kids are teens and they are more independent and so I have more time to increase food allergy community and awareness. That’s why I create this podcast and guest on other people’s podcasts. I want to make a difference, and I have more time to do that now, but I didn’t for many years.
This is NOT about feeling obligated, we as food allergy mamas know that you can’t do it all, and your family has to come first. Don’t worry, there’s time to do it later, when your circumstances allow it!
Category 5: Developing Life Skills
If you look at your life right now, where are you struggling most? Learning life skills, from someone who has gone before you will make life safer and more empowering.
It’s about being proactive.
When we prioritize life skills, we’re shifting from a place of anxiety to a place of preparedness. We can’t control everything, but we can control what we teach and model. And when our kids see us handling situations with confidence, they learn that they can, too.
Life skills I’m talking about here include Travel, dining out, navigating school, advocating, and even kitchen skills like meal planning and meal prep.
So I want you to ask what life skills do you think are most important to your family in the next year?
For example, maybe it’s getting allergy-friendly meals on the table? Then you may want to learn the skill of meal planning for food allergies.
If you want to learn more about Dining Out with food allergies, my Dining Out With Food Allergies Workshop is essential.
Or, if you’re worried about introducing foods and you’re hoping to do more of that this year, start with the Getting Over The Fear of Trying New Foods Workshop.
If this is the year you want to try traveling with food allergies, then I recommend you take my Food Allergy Travel Workshop
As you can see, I’m all about the life skills! I have several workshops that will move you from anxiety to preparedness! You don’t have to figure these things out alone.
Make your Mom Goals Into Actionable Steps
Now that you’ve decided what your most important goals are, it’s time think about what your Actionable Steps will be.
You may have heard about a simple goal framework called SMART goals. This means you want the goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
FOR Example: Instead of saying, "I want to teach my child about their allergies," reframe it as "I will teach my child to read ingredient labels by practicing together once a week."
OR If traveling is one of your goals, you could say, I want to teach my child about flying with their allergies by going on 2 flights this year.
Or if trying new foods is one of your goals, you could say, I want to introduce 5 foods to my child by taking the Get Over The Fear of Trying New Foods Workshop and then implementing what I learn over the next 5 weeks.
Or, if you want to develop your advocacy skills, you could say: I want to learn to advocate for food allergies at social events by using the Social Event Survival Template Pack for 5 events in the next 3 months.
Be Accountable to Your New Mom Goals
We all know that it can be hard to keep moving forward sometimes. Thats why it’s important to be accountable for your goals.
Some ways to stay accountable: Start a journal. Write your goals down, and check back once a week to see where you’re at. Write down what you’ve done, and what you’re struggling with when it comes to that goal. Once you identify what’s stopping you, you can brainstorm ways to overcome it.
Another way to stay accountable is to share these goals with a friend, so they can check in with you. Ask them to put reminders so that they really keep you accountable.
A New Year, A Fresh Start
If last year felt like survival mode, this is your chance to turn things around. Maybe you can pick one skill each month to focus on. Small changes over time lead to big results.
I want to leave you with this thought. The small steps you take today, will add up over time to make HUGE changes. You will, like me wake up and find out you have a teen instead of a little, and you will be able to see the fruit of all that hard work. Don’t give up!
Conclusion
What are your food allergy mom goals for 2025? Let me know by commenting below. I love hearing from you!
You may also like these posts:
Letting Go of Food Allergy Envy So You Can Go From Allergy Anxiety To Peace
How To Manage Family During The Holidays When Your Child Has Food Allergies
