Forget the “Be a better mother” vows and “Lose the baby weight” resolutions. That’s so 2011. Here are New Year’s resolutions to make while you’re restocking the snacks again. Happy 2012 to every mom out there:
- I will make sure that whatever song is stuck in my sleep deprived head is not sung by Elmo nor background music to an xBox game.
- I will hide at least two cookies for myself before placing dessert on the kitchen table.
- I will not hand over the remote.
- I will delegate and then resist hovering. With. All. My. Might.
- I will not answer the voice outside the bathroom door unless someone has mentioned blood or fire. Or Clooney. Or hot fudge. Hot fudge first though.
- When it starts pouring and yet the ref yells “Play on!”, I will remember that my car is far more waterproof than a rain jacket and boots on the sidelines.
- I will not give up my naptime.
- I will turn the car around, just like I said I would if they didn’t knock that off.
- I will stop assuming that all the other moms are naturally better at motherhood and instead, assume that if you were to open their closets, 10 years of toys, sports equipment and talking dolls will fall out with a loud, dusty crash.
- I will switch to the side of the bed farthest from the door that allows in a stream of nightly guests in feety pajamas.
- I will start counting teenage eye-rolls with a video gaming point system. Every 1,000 points, I get a massage.
- I will put the “me” back in Mommy.
These are great! For me, #4 is super hard but I really like #8. This is the year we are going to try harder to follow thru on those consequences. Fingers crossed it works.
As a coach I can tell you that the decision to play on sometimes comes from a. lack of field availability and b. crunched schedules…like when we had to get the rain dates over before we worked on the snow dates, thanks to the Halloween blizzard this year.
Sometimes though, it’s c. stupidity. You have every right to pull your kid off a field!
Re #6: I will reserve the right to pull my kids from the game and take them home when a) the tornado siren goes off or b) when my Mommy instincts tell me that it’s time to go, even if the ref/ump insists on continuing the game.
I once saw baseball umps and coaches decide to continue the game, despite the fact that the tornado sirens went off. (They all consulted their cell phones and determined the storm wasn’t on “this side of the county.”). I went along with it at the time, but later realized that was ridiculous. I’m the Mom. That’s my kid out there. No 10-year-old baseball game is worth possibly being hit/caught by a major storm.
Same thing w/ b. My 8 yr old once played through a 2 hr. rainy baseball game in just-over-freezing weather. The kids were shivering in the outfield and looking clearly miserable. The umps wouldn’t call the game. My every instinct told me that was ridiculous, that the point of ball at that point should be for the kids to learn and have fun. They weren’t doing either at that point. Next time, I’m listening to my instincts.
Love it. I’ll be trying!