Your Letterbox
•
1st January 2016
Mum's the Word - New Year's Parenting Resolutions
One of life’s truisms is that the older you get the faster the years go by, and I swear I’m still trying to lose the Christmas weight from 2010!
But with a new year comes a whole new set of hopes, expectations and unrealistic goal-setting. Apart from the obvious stuff – lose a stone, drink less, take up yoga – I’m aware that my parenting skills leave much to be desired and so, with this in mind, here are my top eight parenting resolutions for 2016:
1.) Get all five children to eat at least one vegetable per day: Easier said than done unless I employ the techniques of the Sneaky Chef (by hiding pureed vegetables in sauces). I have no idea where their aversion to vegetables comes from – certainly not me, I’m a vegetarian – but they’d rather tidy their bedrooms than eat something green. Time to deal with this, even if it takes bribery.
2.) I will prepare for school the night before: Mornings are chaotic in this house, a jumble of lost shoes, missing school bags and lots of yelling – mainly mine. And as I slam the front door behind us - the children piling into the car, shoes in hand and with un-brushed heads - I know deep down that I’m entirely to blame for this chaos. Yes they are slow in the mornings but if they got up earlier (read, if I got up earlier) this needn’t be an issue. (Note to self: try getting them to sleep in their uniforms – imagine the time saved?)