Do you make a New Year’s Resolution every year and then falter when February 15th hits, and all the Valentine’s Day chocolate is 75% off? I know I do. I like to have goals that are measureable. Goals that I can make a list for and then a month or so down the road, I can see the progress that I have made. This year, I am making a new resolution.
I want to be a more mentally present and attentive parent.
There are many, many ways that I can do this, but I wanted to share my top 10 that I will be focusing on this year.
I am way worse about this than I really like to admit.
But if you sit back and think about it, how often do you actually turn your phone off? How often are you sitting on the floor with your kids and scrolling through Facebook? Or while they’re watching a movie and you’re reading through emails? Better yet, instead of playing, we are snap chatting with them? Gosh, I do this way too much. So much time is wasted playing with stupid filters. Technology is important this day and age, but we have to learn to limit ourselves as much as we limit our children. How often do you say “okay, that’s enough cartoons for the day” and five minutes later, you’re checking Facebook. Guilty!
I plan on doing this outside of bedtime with my little ones. Not a book here and there, but sit down on the couch after dinner and deliberately focus on extended reading time. Reading is brain food. I hope that by enforcing consistent reading habits for my children that they will learn to love reading and their brains will flourish. You can read more about how important reading daily is here.
My littles love being outside, as most children do. No matter how cold, wet, snowy, hot, muggy, or windy, I plan to get them outside to enjoy and experience the outdoors and encourage their love for nature, before they’re teenagers and I am begging them to go outside and do something!
I
want my children to have favorite memories and activities that we did during their childhood to carry on to their adult life. I am not sure what that will be for sure yet, but I know that we are going to start a “Happy Moments Jar,” planting flowers in the spring, and seeing fireworks in the summer.
Sometimes we just get in our funks with life and forget that our tiny humans are watching us. Do more of what makes you happy and include your littles when doing it. Let them help you with your hobbies, involve them with things that you normally wouldn’t. As crazy as my OCD might be, I plan on letting my littles bang on the piano a little more when I am at it, having helpers when I bake more often, and maybe even letting them play with my yarn, that’s a big maybe. I wrote a post about choosing to be happy last year. Check it out here.
No matter what your religion or what you believe, it is important for children to have strong core values. Here at BurritoBuzz, we respect everyone and don’t really talk about our religions, but I encourage you to focus on what you believe in and what you want to instill into your children as they grow up.
I have to admit, we have a pretty large family and our “village” for our children is pretty big, but my goal is to embrace it a little more and to lean on those who love us. Even more so to clean up o
ur village. Focus on those who focus on us and try not to worry about things that I can’t control. I have learned that I can’t make family behave the way they should. Adulthood and parenthood made it easy for me to realize that friends come and go sometimes, and that’s okay.
This is a big thing for me. Marriage is not always easy and it is so important for our children to have a constant strong foundation to lean on. The only way that our relationship is going to grow, is to make each other a priority daily. It is fairly easy now. We are really happy and life is awesome, but life isn’t always awesome. I want to start having more regular dates and doing more things just daddy and I.
The constant worry about the dishes, the laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping up the dog hair… it just never ends. The sooner that I give up and admit that fact, the happier I will be! I don’t want my kids to look back and say “yeah, mom always cleaned in her free time.” Uh, how about a reading a book or working on a craft? Or going for a walk? The chores aren’t going anywhere. Period.
I mean really, just hop off of Facebook and Instagram for a hot minute and relax. Who cares when Johnny started walking or that your kid drinks mama’s milk and Sally’s kid drinks formula and cloth vs. disposable diapers. Fit and healthy vs. surviving on 2 hours of sleep. Top of the line baby gear vs.being a single parent with barely one income. Organic backyard farm raised vs. pop tarts and McDonalds. Working parent vs. Stay at home parent.
Give it up. Being a parent is hard enough just from reading the pamphlets they send home with you from the hospital, much less if you are making a list in the back of your head about whatever everyone else is doing, what you think you should be doing. I do it, I’ll admit it. We all do it and we don’t even think about it. I’m taking a step back and focusing on how perfect our parenting style is and how my kids are thriving, smart, and healthy. That is all that matters in the end.
Happy New Year! I hope your goal is to focus on what you have and not what you need to do in the New Year!
– Amanda
Perfectly Imperfect Parenting 