New Years’ Resolutions for Parents?

As we flip to the next page of the calendar once again, it’s natural to do a bit of reflection and think about what you might want to change in your life. The tradition of making major or minor changes at the opening of a new year is an ancient one, and is common in cultures all over the world, although according to a 2007 study from the University of Bristol, only about 12% of resolutions actually stick. However, the study also concluded that women succeed 10% more in keeping to their resolutions if they make their goals public, so they have accountability and support.

So the best thing you can do, in terms of sticking to your resolution this year, is to tell everyone about it! Whether you’ve resolved to improve your eating habits, quit smoking, lose weight , make more mom friends, or give more to charity, you’ll do better if you make sure everyone around you knows about it.

Whatever resolution you choose, being specific is best; Professor Ted Spiker warns that vague resolutions are less likely to be followed, so it’s better to say “I resolve to read to the kids before bed three times a week” than to say “I resolve to read to the kids more this year.”

Accordingly, while this list of resolutions for parents has some great ideas in it, a lot of them aren’t very likely to see much follow-through, because how do you quantify listening more, or taking more pictures? And while these are all great goals, the author has chosen far too many for her to keep proper track of!

Have you chosen a parenting-related new year’s resolution? Tell us about it in the comments!

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