Family: 17 New Year’s Resolutions A Grown Mum Probably Shouldn’t Need To Make

I’ll be honest. Having passed the 30 mark, got married and had kids, I sort of assumed I’d be automatically enrolled into the Grown-Up Club. And that grown-up type things (think neatly-folded piles of ironing and an alphabetically-organised DVD collection) would just sort of, well, happen.

Unfortunately that didn’t turn out to be the case. These days the 3-year-old has taken to calling the piles of un-ironed laundry ‘my lovely mountains’ (and subsequently climbing them), and our DVD collection is mainly organised on a put-it-somewhere-the-baby-can’t-reach-it basis.

So, I’ve decided to take decisive action in 2016. Here are the New Year’s resolutions I probably shouldn’t need to make by now, but I will be…

1. To be in more photos with the kids. Yes, I hate pictures of myself so I always volunteer to take the photo. But they’re going to look back in years to come and wonder what the hell I looked like.

2. To stop deleting the few photos I am in because of my double chin. Let’s face it – things are only going to get worse.

3. To try to liven up their packed lunches with some of those ideas I keep pinning. Thank you to those mums who can be bothered to make Star Wars characters out of cucumber.

4. To take my make-up off at night and stop waking up with panda face.

6. To get something done to my eyebrows. I’ve no idea what, but eyebrows seem to be having a moment right now and there’s only so long I can hide mine behind a fringe.

7. To try to do nothing more often. To resist the urge to check my phone, put a wash on or load the dishwasher when the kids and I aren’t doing anything in particular.

8. To remember that not doing anything in particular is fine. In fact, it’s more than fine – it’s when the spontaneous den-building in the front room and impromptu ice-skating down the hallway happens.

9. To fill out the 1-year-old’s baby book without making it obvious I forgot to do it at the time. Sticking photos in should be a piece of cake. Remembering when each of her eight teeth came through could be a bit more tricky.

11. To figure out how to use Excel. And, while we’re at it, PowerPoint.

12. To do some form of structured exercise. Endlessly picking up toys has gone some way towards burning off the odd slice of cake. Alas, it hasn’t touched my daily Twirl habit.

14. To finally get my phone screen fixed. The sellotape that’s currently stopping any more shards of glass from falling off is embarassing. The fact my youngest smashed it at the start of November is even more so.

15. To spend an evening archiving all our photos. Yes, I know my startup disk is full. But Gogglebox is on, dammit.

16. To start doing the Date Night thing with the husband, without calling it that because it makes me want to vomit. An Excuse To Drink Wine Night, anyone?

17. To remember that I don’t need an excuse to drink wine. Ever. I have a baby and a toddler for that.