I have an ambivalent relationship with new year’s resolutions.
On one hand, I do love the start of a new year, and the sense of determination and hope it brings. This will be the year I will keep on top of clutter and chaos and make it to a yoga class at least once a week, I swear. However; I also think we so often set the bar too high, making aspirations so hard to meet, and the feeling of failure so great when we realise we simpply can’t manage everything we set out to do.
Maybe the trick is to keep it simple, mamas – and focus on only things that really, really matter. Like spending time with those we love and enjoying what is right in front of us – our children. Because I am sure you have discovered what I have discovered, mamas, that time slips through your fingers so much, much too quickly when you have young children.
Which is exactly why Brook Hall’s words on new year’s resolutions for 2018 hit us so hard – and why we think every mum needs to read these very words. The American mum blogger wrote her post after she had rocked her 5-year-old to sleep for the first time in a long while, and realized that her days of doing things like that were numbered.
Here are Brook’s words in full:
Last night, after he got up to go potty, I carried my 5YO back to bed and decided to rock him. When I stopped rocking, he sat up and kissed my cheek, then pushed on me to keep rocking.
I noticed that he fit in my lap and arms like a glove. An absolutely perfect fit. But as a Mom, I know that when something fits one of my kids perfectly, they are about to outgrow it.
My youngest baby is about to outgrow my lap.
I rocked and rocked, and cried and cried.
Then I rocked my 6YO. He had to sit sideways to fit on my lap, his long arms uncomfortable trying to find somewhere to rest.
But we rocked anyway.
And I cried some more.
Last night I learned, even despite my oldest’s size, they haven’t outgrown me yet.
But they will.
When I rock them for the very last time, I won’t even know it.
In 2018 I will rock my boys every day, until they ask me to stop.
I don’t want to try to squeeze them into my lap on the last day of 2018 and realize it is too late. I don’t want this precious year to be a waste.
In this new year, I will think less about the alone time waiting for me in the evening. I’ll watch a little less TV, postpone listening to my audio book for a few extra minutes, and let my to-do list wait for a little while each night.
This year, I will rock my kids.
