These New Years’ resolutions for moms are written for common motherhood struggles. These resolutions are built to help moms take better care of themselves and be more present with their kids too! These resolutions will change your parenting and your mental health too.
This post is all about new years resolutions for moms that are actually achievable!
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New years' Resolution for Moms
1. Reserve One Hour Each Day to Play with Your Kids
Balance between work and play(ing with your kids) is hard to strike in mom life. We want our kids to know they are important. We want to play with them but we also have to get the laundry folded and food made at some point during the day. One thing I have found that helps me balance everything is to schedule one hour a day that I designate wholly to my kids. It can be the same time every day such as the hour after breakfast, or it can change each day depending on your schedule. Your intentionality will go a long way to show your kids you care. Leave your phone in another room, resist the urge to declutter, and simply spend time playing with your kids. I promise you won’t regret it and you will make some incredible memories too.
2. Do Something Once a Week That Doesn’t Involve Kids
Me time is hard to find as a mom. You may have to make time instead. Resolve this year to take at least one hour for yourself each week. It can be spent on a sports team, a girls night out, or even just a moment to shave and paint your nails! If you need a few ideas check out these 35 Me Time Ideas for Moms. Me time isn’t selfish, it’s what will recharge you to be the best mom you possible can be.
3. Set a Caffeine Limit
The sleep to stress ratio isn’t always great as a mom. It is incredibly easy to rely on caffeine to replace sleep and improve your mood. If I’m honest, I do this all the time and have recently had to set limits for myself. Since too much caffeine can cause anxiety, headaches, irritability, and ironically insomnia (all struggles many moms have to begin with) it’s best to keep from worsening them with a high caffeine consumption. Generally, a healthy maximum caffeine intake will fall right around 400 milligrams a day. However, everybody is different and you may need to adjust this lower if your body reacts strongly to caffeine. One way that I like to limit caffeine is to require myself to drink a certain amount of water prior to having a second cup of coffee. This may work for you too.
If you’re feeling super tired still, give these 14 Ways to Boost Energy for Tired Moms a try!
4. Get Up Before Your Kids
It can be fun to occasionally wake up to kids jumping on your bed but when it happens day after day it can get exhausting. When I don’t get up before my kids, I end up with my baby screaming to be nursed while my toddler is saying “mom, EAT!” over and over again. Plus, I can hardly see all this happening because I don’t have my contacts in yet. Needless to say, my patience wears thin within a matter of minutes of waking up and the day starts poorly for everybody. But when I get up before them to get ready for my day and spend some alone time, the day starts WAY better.
5. Spend 1000 Hours Outside
The challenge of spending 1000 hours outside has become extremely popular recently amongst moms online. I am currently in the middle of the 1000 hour challenge myself and have found it so helpful to keep myself accountable to get my kids outside. It is so easy to get caught up in all that there is to get done inside and forget to take your kids outside. Printing one of these 1000 hour trackers for your fridge will help you stay accountable to occasionally leave the mess behind and get some fresh air!
6. Give Yourself a Bedtime and Stick to It
I am fully familiar with the cycle moms go through. We are exhausted all day long but then we end up binging our favorite shows and staying up way too late, ending up even more exhausted the next day. More coffee and more late nights equals a new level of exhaustion.
While you can’t fully control how much sleep you get as a mom, the one thing you can control is when you go to bed. So set a bedtime for yourself that puts you in bed for a minimum of seven hours and stick to it. Some nights you won’t get all seven hours but some nights you will!
If you are like me and have a hard time calming your active imagination when you lay down at night, journaling is a great way to gain control of your thoughts and relax before bed. If you are new to journaling or need some new ideas on what to write about, these 73 Night Journal Prompts For Relaxation Before Bed Time may help you get started. Just head to the store and grab a cute journal!
7. Make Your Bed Each Morning
Sometimes New Years’ Resolutions feel too far out of reach or too overwhelming and quickly get left behind once January ends. One simple resolution to try if you are feeling overwhelmed is making your bed each morning. It’s insanely easy so it’s a great start to building consistent habits within your day. Plus it will also give you somewhere neat and relaxing to come back to at the end of a long day.
8. Don’t Scroll with Your Kids in the Room
Have you ever been hanging out with someone that seemed to constantly check their phone while you were together?! Whether it’s your friend or maybe even your husband, there is no doubt that it’s obnoxious. When someone does this to me, I very quickly feel unimportant to that person. Sadly, that’s the way our kids feel when we are on our phones too. It’s easy to check one notification and get lost scrolling because social media platforms are literally built to keep us addicted to them.
Fight against it and make a conscious effort not to scroll social media and to spend as little time as possible on your phone when your kids are in the room. Actions speak louder than words and leaving your phone behind to give your kids your full attention will communicate that they are important to you.
9. Exercise “X” Times a Week
Part of being the best mom you can be is taking care of yourself in order to take care of your kids. I work out so that I can carry both kids at once if they both want held, so I can chase my toddler around and not run out of breath, and so I can be there for them as long as God allows me to.
Trust me, I know it gets trickier to get to the gym once you have kids. The way you workout may have to change a little and that’s okay! I personally do HIIT and bodyweight workouts in my little budget home gym most of the time and I love them!
Another option if you aren’t a big workout fanatic is walking. If you live somewhere warm and walkable, walking with a stroller is a great way to exercise with kids in the mix. If you have a lot of months of crappy weather like we do, I personally have loved having my walking pad treadmill at home. Putting this under a desk is the perfect way to get in a little movement if you work from home or have work to do on the computer.
You can also check out my post on 12 Tips for Exercising with Toddlers to make the process as pain free as possible! I actually work out WITH my toddler most days!
10. Read a Book Each Month
When I started having kids is when I stopped reading books for fun. While I do enjoy it, it simply fell off my radar. So while I know moms don’t generally have time to spare, reading is a great thing to replace scrolling on your phone. It’s also a great pass time if you are currently nursing a little one. I just highly suggest this book page holder to make it easier with only one hand.
If reading a book a month is too much, you can also easily scale this one back. Heck, even if you go from no books last year to one book this year, that is something to be proud of mama!
11. Drink a Gallon of Water a Day
Water is crucial to keeping your body functioning at full capacity, especially if you are pregnant or nursing. Somehow the chaos of motherhood makes it so easy to forget the fact that you have to drink water. One good way to help with this is getting a good insulated water bottle with a straw! It may sound crazy, but not having to untwist a lid will likely result in you drinking far more water when you have short moments of peace throughout the day.
If you really are struggling to drink water, you may have to start smaller than a gallon and work your way up! But I have seen the drastic improvements in my body when I drink a gallon of water a day and I truly can’t stress the importance of water enough!
12. Have One Play Date a Week
I learned very early on with my first baby that connection was an insanely important aspect of motherhood. Moms need adult contact throughout the week to truly function well mentally. This can be a mom’s group at your church or city or it can be a simple little coffee date with a mom friend.
And if your schedule won’t allow for one playdate a week, adjust this as needed to work with you. Just be sure to set up your standard and stick with it!
This post was all about New Years’ resolutions for moms that are especially geared toward mom life while also being achievable! I’d love to hear which one you choose and updates on how things are going! Leave a comment below or on any one of our social media platforms you can find just below this post!
-Beautifully Busy Mom
