A mom’s fresh and novel approach to making and keeping her New Year Resolutions…
“Happy New Year! You make any resolutions yet?”
That’s how my co-worker greets me when I’m putting my lunch in the communal fridge in the break room the other day. I sigh, mumble something about how I don’t really do that sort of thing, and scurry out of the room before they can give me their list of “This year I will…”
It is always the same list.
This year I will (choose one or more):
(a) Lose weight
(b) Eat better
(c) Quit smoking/drinking
(d) Spend more time with the kids
(e) Save more money
I honestly don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. Sure it is an American practice, but there are lots of “First Days of the Year,” depending on where you are, what you believe, and how you organize your time. I tried making traditional New Year’s Day Resolutions for a while. I’d stick to some of them, some of them I just pay lip service to. Some of them I’d brag about when March came around and I was still doing them, some of them I’d keep to myself whether I succeeded or failed. Most of them I’d forget completely by the time the next New Year rolled around. It all just felt like a waste of energy.
At the same time, now that I’ve got a little girl, I see that making resolutions can be a great mental exercise. More… »
). Unfortunately, my son has had a bad week or two at school, so the Lego was denied him. I left the house this morning, telling him how quickly he redeemed his lego was now up to him, i.e. the proverbial ball was in his court. Good behaviour = lego. “What if I’m really good today? Can I get my Lego this evening?” he asked. I said no, it had to be at least a week of good behaviour, to compensate for a week of less than optimal classroom focus. Of course, I left his sad little face this morning to only feel a lot of guilt on my drive to work. However, I feel I must stick to what I told him, else I lose credibility. Did these kids come with a label that parenting was going to be so hard???
