Every year there are certain resolutions that I would really like to make but then reality hits and I realize that they would be impossible to keep. So here are my top five New Year’s resolutions that I will only achieve in my dreams.
1. My house will always be clean. Let’s face it if you have kids your house will at some point look like a tornado swept through, unless of course you are really lucky. My kids are still at the dump and grab stage – dump the whole toy box then grab what you want. Even if they do manage to leave their toy boxes in tack toys still get spread downstairs and even in the kitchen.
2. My kids will behave in public places. Someday I hope that this one will be a reality for me. But right now taking my kids anywhere can easily turn into a nightmarish situation. For example half way through the movie “Happy Feet” my youngest got bored and began bouncing from seat to seat followed by an investigation of the stairs. She is also notorious for climbing out of the cart and escaping if I turn my back – and no the seatbelt cannot hold her.
3. My kids will sit still at church. We attend church every Sunday so you would think that my kids would be used to sitting still for an hour. You would think that they would sit quietly on the bench and look at the books or color. You would be wrong. My youngest does not know the meaning of the word still. The other week she kept leaning through her chair bothering the little girl behind us. Then she found a cheerio on the floor, not ours, and picked it up. Before I could stop her she popped it in her mouth then gave me a big grin.
4. I will have dinner ready before my husband comes home from work. This is a fantasy of mine: my husband walks in the door, I greet him with a kiss, dinner is on the table, the children are quietly seated, and we sit down to eat. Reality is more like this: he walks through the door, I get a quick peck on the lips as I am throwing dinner together, and I beg him to distract the kids who are whining at my feet until the food is done.
5. My children will be in bed at 8:00 and sleep through the night. We do usually manage to get our kids in bed around 8:00. But we haven’t completely conquered the sleep through the night thing. Inevitably a few times a week one of our children will wake up and cry for mom or dad. I thought this would end when I weaned our youngest child and that was two and a half years ago. Obviously I was wrong.