Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year

It has been many many years since I've made a New Year's resolution.  Like most of us, I always broke the ones I made, so I eventually stopped making them.  This year Yaya came home from school with a resolution worksheet.  The children each made resolutions: one related to school and one related to home life.

Her resolutions inspired me this year.  Lately, I've found myself butting heads with children who argue with each other, refuse to clean their room, talk back, and generally test the limits in any way they can.  It all leaves me very frustrated and usually ends with me yelling at them in a generally fruitless effort to get them to listen.  And at the end of it Yaya calmly says, "Don't be so mad, Mom."

Well, starting today (I need the practice, so I may as well start a few hours early) my New Year's resolution is not to yell.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to break it in the first week, but rather than giving up completely, I'm going to keep trying.  This resolution will be a work in progress, and I'm hoping that by the end of 2011 I'll have it at least mostly in hand.  Then, perhaps in 2012 I can work on fixing some other flaw...

Whether you make a resolution to change or choose to continue with the status quo, I wish you a happy new year.

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