We made it!  The holiday season is coming to an end!  I can finally put away the Christmas decorations!  Every year I am so excited to get them out, and as soon as the day is over I’m itching to clean it all up!  You know what that means though, New Years is just a few short days away.  I’m sure as an adult you understand that New Years Resolutions are difficult to make, and sometimes excruciating to keep.  When it comes to my kids I always encourage them to make a resolution or two.  We keep them simple, and I have to commit to it just as much (if not more) than they do.

This year my daughter has made the resolution to be kinder to her brother.  It seems like a fairly general concept.  To help her we made a chart.  Each day that she is nice to her brother’s she gets a sticker.  For each month that has at least 25 days with stickers she gets a surprise.  Usually her surprises are something from the dollar bin at Target, or maybe a trip to a bouncy house.  This way she gets some motivation to be kind (besides me telling her that it’s the right thing to do).  I know that it’s something that I will have to help her with, and constantly remind her of, but I know she can do it.  She knows she can too.  That is the important part, choosing resolutions that you know you (or your child) can keep.  Keeping things realistic promotes success.

For my two year old we have decided that he will be potty trained in the next year.  Now, I know he doesn’t understand what’s going on, or what I expect of him.  However, talking about it is getting him excited.  I didn’t set any time frames for this one because if he doesn’t catch on right away I don’t want him (or his big sister) to think that he has failed at his resolution.

As for myself, I have resolved to cut out caffeine completely.  I’ve been caffeine free for about four months now, and I just want to keep it up.  As a family, we resolve to have more game nights, more snuggle days, and as much fun as we can muster.  Again, things I know we can accomplish!

-Stephanie Wright