Take the Mommy Exemption to New Years Resolutions
The presents have all been unwrapped and the kids are busy playing with their new toys. It’s time for the Christmas letdown.
As much as I enjoy Christmas I have to say that the days after the big event have always been some of my favorites. The week between Christmas and New Years is a time for visiting friends and family and enjoying time with my kids.
It’s also time for everyone to start talking about their New Years resolutions.
That is, everyone but me.
Once again I have decided to take advantage of the Mommy Exemption from making any New Year Resolutions.
What is the Mommy Exemption?
It’s my rule that says any person who is required to change herself on an hourly basis to keep up with growing children in a constantly changing world is already making enough resolutions.
If you find yourself making daily promises to yourself such as, today I will not lose it when my teenage son asks for the tenth time if he really needs to go to bed before 10:00, or acts surprised the next morning that he has to actually wake up at 6:30 to make his 7:00 am bus to school, you might qualify for this exemption.
I started taking the Mommy Exemption two years ago and have decided to take it again for 2014.
I love being a mother. It’s changed me in ways that I could not have imagined. I’m a stronger, more confident woman. I’ve tackled problems as big as advocating for my special needs daughter and as small as figuring out that if I make monster eating sounds while cutting my youngests fingernails he won’t get freaked out.
It has taken me 40-something years and enough money spent on therapy to buy a small house, but I like who I am. Are there things I am still working on? Of course there are. But I don’t need the calendar to remind me of that, I only need look in the mirror.
Sadly, yet again Santa did not bring me the GPS device I wanted to locate my pre-children body. So, I guess I need to accept the hard truth that I’m on my own.
I also have come to the difficult conclusion that no elf is going to put my name on top of my to-do list. I’m going to have to do that one by myself.
The problem is the big yearly resolutions have never worked for me. The grand pronouncements of all the ways I’m going to change my life only leave me feeling more frustrated. It’s my actions that always speak louder than my words.
By taking the exemption again this year I’m allowing myself the freedom to change when I’m ready to and not when I flip my calendar.
So bring on the articles and posts about all the wonderful things we moms should resolve to do in the New Year. I’m taking a page out of my kids’ book and not listening. I may even put my hands on my ears and scream it at the top of my lungs just for the fun of it!
Happy New Year!
Kathy Radigan is a writer, blogger, social media addict, mom to three, wife to one and owner of a possessed appliance. She posts a weekly essay each Sunday on her blog, My dishwasher’s possessed. She is honored to have essays in two anthologies, Sunshine After the Storm: A Survival Guide for the Grieving Mother, and The HerStories Project: Women Explore the Joy, Pain and Power of Female Friendship. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
