Who decided that you should make New Year Resolutions and 'New Year New You' plans on January 1st? It's a terrible day to make any changes. Almost everyone is hungover, tired, and feeling terrible, and in desperate need of coffee and a fry-up rather than green tea and salad. (Not me, can't drink, but that's a different rant.)
The house is a horrible mess, either with party debris or just the wobbly Christmas tree and drooping decorations next to the big pile of plastic toys in the corner.
If one of you was out drinking and the other was at home with the kids then things are likely to be fraught with tension too.(Babysitters go to a different plane of existence on New Years Eve and cannot be contacted.) The sober one from last night is still 'on duty' this morning as it's far too much hard work to feed the baby with a sore head from too much Guinness, and if you've been celebrating til the dawn you can't possibly be woken by the kids at 6am - you need your beauty sleep you poor things. Guess which one was me.
If your 'New You' Plan was involving any sort of healthy eating change at all then you cannot start it now anyway. The house will still be packed with far to much in the way of temptation. There will be piles of chocolate coins and tubes of smarties from the kids stockings still filling the kitchen cupboards, and the half tin of celebrations and packets of nuts would be too hard to resist if you tried to change your snacking habits to raw carrot sticks today.
I think a much better day to make a change would be the first day of the new school term, for me that's Monday January 5th. By then I will have forced the family to gobble up all the choccies and sweets (I'm on the drumstick squashies now to do my bit) so there will be room for all the veggies and fresh fruit. AND NOTHING TO TEMPT US! Also, everyone will be back to a new routine, there will be peace and qiuet for short periods during nap time, and less stress all round.
So yes, the official New Year in this house has been changed to 5th January 2015. It will at least give us a fighting chance of making a change, any change.
So what do you think? Can we really put ourselves under so much pressure to change on the very first day of the New Year, or should we set our own limits and deadlines to make things more achievable?
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