New Year...New Us?

Are you guys setting New Year’s Resolutions this year?  The older we get, the more we struggle with these resolutions.  Especially now, as Parents, are we really willing to take another thing on?!?!  Is it even possible to be more tired?!? We normally have the same list every year: exercise more, eat healthier, save money...you know the drill.  However, we’ve learned over the years to really scale back our resolutions.  Is it realistic that we’ll start working out five times a week?  Probably not, but hey, one or two would be great.  Are we actually going to start our resolutions on January 1st?  Not so much, so let’s shoot for Monday, but with the understanding that may not happen as well.  Resolutions, similar to parenting, aren’t always going to go as planned.  Even if you make five resolutions, but only half complete one, that’s ok.  We should always be trying to better ourselves, and that’s an important example we set for our kids.  

Over the Holidays, our Toddler was given the book The Bad Seed.  Definitely recommend the book if you haven’t read!  Not to give away too many spoilers (but we’re going to anyway), we’re given insight into The Bad Seed, who does very bad things like cut in line, tells pointless lies, and arrives late to everything!  But then something great happens.  The Bad Seed starts trying to be just a little less bad.  Do they still mess up sometimes and tell an awful joke?  They do, but they continue to try and they are making small strides.  The Bad Seed doesn’t give up after they make a mistake, and they continue with their resolution to become better, or maybe even A Good Seed.  This is a great book for Toddlers, but maybe even a better book for parents.  Are you the absolute best parent in the universe?  We can only speak for ourselves, but no we’re not.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t try every day.

We seem to use New Year’s Resolution as the only time we can make a positive change.  We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and if we don’t hit every goal, we feel as if we’ve failed.  The truth though is we’re able to change every single day, for better or for worse.  We wake up everyday thinking we’ll be a patient parent.  We can’t say that always happens, but at least we’re attempting.  The New Year can be a great time to jump start some change, but please don’t feel like you’re doing something wrong if you take one step forward, then two steps back.  While you might think this is setting a poor example for your child, you’re actually showing a great, realistic approach to positive change.  So cheers to 2021!