Each year, most of us set ourselves goals for the year ahead. Known as New Year’s resolutions, they give us a chance to reflect on the past year and the things we’d like to change. It could be you want to lose weight, get healthier, learn a new hobby or travel more. Setting these resolutions gives us hope and excitement for a fresh start.
This year, why not let baby join in the fun? Creating New Year resolutions for you and baby can be a great idea. Not sure what kind of resolutions to set? Below you’ll discover some awesome baby New Year’s resolutions you might want to consider.
1. Stop Stressing Over Milestones
Seeing baby reach their first milestones is an amazing feeling. However, many parents find themselves getting frustrated that their baby isn’t developing as quickly as they think they should be. Whether it’s weaning baby onto solid foods, that all-important first word or their first steps – it’s easy to stress out if things aren’t progressing as quickly as you want them to.
What you need to remember is that each baby is different. Development milestones are there as a guideline, but it doesn’t mean your little one will follow them. You’ll also want to avoid comparing your baby’s progress to other babies. Be patient, enjoy these precious moments and don’t try to rush your baby’s progress. They will reach each milestone as soon as they’re ready and not before. If you are worried there’s something wrong, don’t be afraid to raise your concerns with the pediatrician or doctor.
2. Print Off Digital Photos
These days, everything is digital. However, when it comes to photos of your baby, it’s much nicer to have physical copies to display around the home. Why not make a resolution to start printing off more of your digital photos over the next year? Pick out your favorites, print them off and either store them in a photo album or display them around the home in picture frames.
You could even create a collage of your favorite photos and hang them on the wall. These can be kept forever and shared with your child when they grow up.
3. Create A List Of Fun Activities And Complete One Each Week
One of the best New Year’s resolutions you can make for you and baby is to visit more places together. It can be pretty tough coming up with ideas at the last minute, so why not create a list of activities you can do throughout the year?
You can start by creating a list of special activities you would love to do, such as go camping or take baby on vacation. Then, add a list of smaller activities you can do throughout the year too. Be sure to add both indoor and outdoor activities onto the list and choose one to complete each week.
4. Record Baby’s Development
If you haven’t been doing this already, now is a great time to start. Some parents even aim to write down one memorable thing baby did every single day. Then, when your child is old enough, you can show them everything you’ve written down.
They will love seeing the memories you recorded; especially as they’d never remember any of the information themselves. It’s also great for you, as when things get stressful, you can look at the records you’ve made and smile at the progress baby is making.
5. Sign Up To A Baby Group
Getting out of the house isn’t always easy, but it is vital for both you and baby. If they aren’t signed up to any baby groups in your local area, you’ll want to change that in the New Year. There are plenty of different baby groups available these days. From yoga to sensory classes, there’s bound to be something you and baby will enjoy.
It also gives you a chance to socialize with other parents and the majority of classes are really affordable.
6. Find A Parent And Baby Exercise Group
This resolution combines two goals into one. If you’re trying to lose your baby weight but find it difficult to find time to exercise, a parent and baby exercise group is exactly what you need. You don’t need to worry about finding a babysitter and your baby will also get to socialize as you keep fit.
You’ll also benefit from meeting other parents in the same position as you. They can provide you with additional motivation, as well as potentially become good friends.
7. Read More Stories
Your baby may not be able to understand the stories you read to them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy them. Reading together is a perfect bonding experience and it can really aid in their development. If nothing else, they love looking at the pictures and spending quality time with you.
Try and make the stories you read more entertaining by adding silly voices and over-exaggerating specific parts. You may feel a little silly doing it the first few times, but you’ll soon overcome the anxiety when you see how much your baby loves it!
8. Stick To Routines
The majority of baby related issues can be solved with a good routine. However, as you likely already know, sticking to a routine isn’t as easy as it sounds. After a while, it’s easy to start being a little lapse with naps, feeds and even bedtime. While the odd change in routine won’t cause too much disruption, continually altering it can be disastrous!
So, if you’ve struggled to keep up with routines, make it your New Year’s resolution to be stricter with yourself and your baby. A solid routine will make life so much easier for both of you.
9. Less Screen Time
Are you guilty of allowing baby to watch cartoons on your tablet or smartphone? If so, you definitely aren’t alone! When you’ve had little sleep and you have what feels like a million chores to do, sticking on a cartoon to keep baby entertained can be really tempting. However, too much screen time can be detrimental to their development.
So, if you’re guilty of this common habit, resolve to cut down your baby’s screen time in the New Year.
10. Encourage More Sensory Play
Sensory play is extremely important for baby’s development. Allowing them to indulge all of their senses, it’s a fantastic learning experience. You’ll find plenty of ideas online on how to create your own sensory experiences. However, you can also take baby to local sensory play groups.
Still not convinced sensory play is important for baby? Studies have shown it can help stimulate cognitive development and brain growth, it can enhance gross and fine motor skills and it can also encourage cooperation and positive social interactions.
11. We Will Get Out More
Getting out of the house is difficult when you have a baby. Everything suddenly becomes much more difficult and time consuming. This makes it easy to avoid going out unless you absolutely need to. The trouble is, staying cooped up indoors isn’t good for you or baby.
Even if you just start getting out on a short daily walk, the fresh air will do wonders for you and baby. To make it easier, put everything you need to take with you by the door the night before. That way, you’ll find it easier and quicker to get out the next day.
12. Start Making Yourself A Priority
Ok, so this one isn’t directly linked to your baby, but it will have a positive indirect effect. It’s normal for priorities to change when you become a parent. Your baby becomes the main focus and it’s all about their needs, development and happiness. However, what you don’t always realize is that if you’re not happy, baby isn’t going to be happy either.
It’s imperative you look after yourself. So, in the New Year, resolve to take more time out for you. Do more things that you enjoy, have a health check up and start putting yourself first sometimes. You’ll be amazed how much this positively effects both you and baby.
Conclusion
The above are just some of the resolutions you can set for you and baby in 2018. Think about the ways you can potentially change as a parent and what you’d really love to improve over the next year. Just remember to keep your goals realistic, otherwise you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions you’re making for you and baby next year? Share them below!
It’s good to have these resolutions for the new year and of much importance is that of printing the baby’s photos and arranging on an album. I mean that is a way to keep the memories on a hard copy as well rather than having all in digital form.
Yes, keeping a printed copy of a child’s photos is still important not just for an album or collage but also to ensure you still have a copy in case all your digitally stored copies get corrupted or destroyed 🙂
There is nothing more important like keeping memories and one best way to doing that is by having a picture collection of your little ones life stages as much as you can. Looking at them grow so fast as they do, it’s only those pictures that would give the little memories you had with them in a fresh context anytime you view those pictures. Personally, I make it a habit of snapping anything we finish with bathing and dressing up our baby.
When we have a baby, people suggested us to record baby’s milestones in photographs and videos. We did our best to capture baby’s milestones, for instance, the baby’s first laugh, the first time the baby ate solid food, the first time the babysat by himself, the baby’s first crawl etc.
One of my new year’s resolution is to create a composite video of baby’s first year. I believe this will be a treasure for the lifetime.