9 Practical New Year's Resolutions for Busy Parents

Everyone has a holiday chore they actually enjoy. My friend Barb’s specialty is handmade cards. She loves to make them and it shows. My mother’s passion is gift wrapping. She could go up against Martha Stewart in a wrapping challenge any day. Sometimes the wrapping is so elaborate that it’s a gift in and of itself. I tried it one year, but my heart wasn’t in it and therefore, I ended up with glue gun burns and a package barely befitting my daughter’s pet camel.

My solution: any store that gift wraps automatically has my business. Occasionally, I’ll even pay online retailers to wrap gifts for me (and then insist to my husband I was sure wrapping was included in the price). The gifts I wrap myself get stick-on ribbons and are then placed behind the tree to allow my mom’s packages to be displayed up front.

If the prospect of writing hundreds of holiday cards has your stomach in knots, order a photo card with a pre-printed greeting and signature this year. All you have to do is address them and stick them in the mail. If cooking a holiday meal for 30 makes you want to crawl into bed and not reappear until January 2, order a pre-cooked dinner or insist that everyone bring a dish or beverage to share. Holidays should be enjoyed, not dreaded because of the amount of work involved.

New Year’s resolutions should be more than answers we pull out of our proverbial hats as the clock is about to strike midnight at the annual New Year’s Eve party. Instead, make resolutions you believe you can reasonably integrate into your life in the coming year.

As for my resolutions: I’m going to decrease my daily M&M intake from six handfuls to two, invest in TiVo so as not to ever miss another of Lynette Scavo’s challenges in raising twin boys on Desperate Housewives,” and leave the handmade cards to Barb.