Get the best New Year resolutions for brand new moms!
Congratulations on your baby’s arrival, mama!
Being a new mom can be a challenge. It’s a new chapter in your life and no one is fully prepared for this life job!
And if you had your baby during this time (my twins were January babies!) you might reflect on the year you had.
From first trying to conceive to pregnancy and going through strange pregnancy symptoms, you made it mama!
Now, you might be looking for a way to better your life in the new year. The end of the year is always a great time to use that reflection to make changes in our lives for the coming year.
I want to give you 20 of my best New Year resolutions ideas you can make as a new mom.
Over time, motherhood teaches us many things first hand. But we can also learn, grow, and become better women as we learn from other mamas too!
So here are my best suggestions.
1. No More Comparing
By nature, we tend to compare ourselves to others.
We want to feel like we fit nice and snug in the “normal” category.
We even go as far as to seek the approval of other moms so we feel justified in the decisions we make. Sure… we’re adults, but let’s face it!
We still want to feel special. Like we’re doing something right.
But sure enough, comparing ourselves to others actually makes us feel worse.
Usually because that other mama is excelling in areas we’ve struggled with for months (eh-hem or years!).
Comparing is envy’s best friend. Don’t get me wrong. It can be helpful to learn from other mothers.
But comparing often makes us blind to what we are doing well and robs us of our ability to truly be thankful.
Motherhood looks different for each of us and we can’t possibly put it into a box.
What helped me get through the comparison track was my gratitude journal. This helped me be thankful for what I have, the big things in my life and notice the simple joys in my life as a new mom.
2. Just…Be
Motherhood can be overwhelming much of the time.
Have you ever felt that way? Too much to do! So little time! The baby’s not sleeping! The milk isn’t flowing! We missed the appointment…again!
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your own health and sanity is to just…be.
Accept the things you are able to get done as well as the things you can’t. This can be hard if you’re the type to hold your breath until everything gets done and then you can relax.
The truth is, all of your work will never be completed in a day, mama. It’s best to prioritize your tasks and go into the day with 3-5 top tasks you would like to achieve for the day.
Give yourself those daily reminders to breathe and exist without even when things are out of your control.
3. Be Careful What You Give Up
Do you have a boss baby on your hands? Do you eat, drink, sleep, and schedule all of your activities around your child’s temperament?
Have you given up trying to get out the door to your weekly book club or women’s group?
Are you waiting until motherhood becomes less demanding or intense before you continue doing the things you love?
Trust me, I know the feeling!
There were days I felt I could never get my twins out the door in time. But it does get better. Decide this year to at least keep one or two things on the calendar each week or each month that excite you.
Having something you enjoy and look forward to can help you fight against postpartum depression and make you a happier mom.
Some days it might seem easier to just stay in the house so you don’t have to struggle for hours to get you and baby ready.
Bringing your little one everywhere you go isn’t easy, but opting to stay indoors too much can take a toll on your health.
If you can, try to take little walks with your baby, have coffee of tea with a friend, or join a new mothers support group. Although it may seem like more work on your part, it’s usually worth it and can be a relief.
4. Accept Messiness
If you’re looking at your computer screen sideways right now, you probably have to try a bit harder to master this one. 🙂
But I tell ya, it actually is not as disturbing as you think!
When your mind is set on everything in your home being clean all or most of the time, you tend to carry a lot more stress. I’m not suggesting you embrace living sloppy and not ever cleaning up.
But I am saying that instead of making it your goal to keep your house as tidy as it was before you had baby, be okay with it being at least in a decent liveable condition.
Oh yes, and don’t think that it’s you that’s messy. Think of it more like the circumstances.
You know how to clean up behind yourself, but you’re not always able to right away because you’re raising a child. Having a clean home 24/7 just isn’t realistic anymore (even for the most obsessive cleaners)!
5. Plan for Setbacks
If you’re a brand new mom, this resolution will literally save you so much stress now and in the future, mama.
No matter where you’re going, how far it is from your house, or how well you’ve planned and packed, plan to be everywhere at least 20-30 minutes early.
These are just a few examples of things that can come up:
- Forgot you need to put gas in the car asap
- Baby wants to breastfeed
- You forgot something you need at home after you’ve already left (documents, your phone, wallet. etc..)
Planning for the unexpected ensures you can still make it to where you need to go on time and reduces your stress. Your baby will thank you too! 🙂
6. Eliminate Negative Influences
Who are your closest friends, mama? What are they like? Are they your biggest cheerleaders?
Or are they sitting on the side lines telling you how much your plans aren’t going to work?
If you find your relationships with your closest friends (and even family) to be negative, draining, and unsupportive, it may be time to limit your communication or cut it off altogether.
It might seem a bit extreme, but you’re worth it!
Relationships are supposed to uplift you and build you up. It doesn’t mean they’ll tell you sweet things all the time. But if they’re mostly pessimistic people, it will have an undesirable impact on you.
These are people that have some or all of these qualities:
- Chronic complaining
- Lack vision in their own lives
- Will pick out the negatives in other people’s lives (and yours too!)
- Unthankful
- Judging other people for the choices they make or don’t make
- Constant gossipers
If you want this year to be your best year, it’s important to plant yourself around people that have will refresh you, encourage you, and challenge you to become the person you want to be.
After all, we become like who we constantly surround ourselves with.
7. Get Comfortable Saying “No”
Do you want to be soccer mom, the perfect wife, apart of the school PTA, a volunteer, as well as rescue everyone that calls on you even though your schedule is bursting at the seems?!
That’s a definite problem.
Well, there’s one (and only one!) solution for this. You must learn to say “no.”
When you say it, you can be courteous and express empathy, but by no means should you apologize if you’re not obligated to help.
If the person becomes offended, that is their choice. People that love you will want what’s best for you and respect your decision.
If you want peace and sanity, you must be protective of your time.
8. Rest
Whether your baby is one week old or one year old, rest is important.
Forget about trying to live up to the term supermom. It’s like trying to keep up with the Joneses. Once you think you’ve reached them, you can only realize it was all an illusion in the first place!
It kind of goes back to point #4 about being messy.
If you burden yourself with many tasks that you feel should be getting done today (not tomorrow), you’re more likely to burn out quickly. It’s no good for you or your baby.
Usually what happens is, we hold ourselves to such a high standard because we have been brainwashed to think that if we don’t accomplish certain tasks (or a lot of tasks) everyday that we are bad mothers. It’s just not true!
Rest is essential to your well being in many aspects.
If you’re having trouble getting your baby to sleep through the night, check out my other article that includes 13 baby sleep tips!
9. Journal
This can be a great way to relax and put your thoughts into something positive each day. And this list journal gives you prompts to help you find your happiness in your days/
If journaling isn’t your thing, why not try out some other activities you might find relaxing?
Ever tried painting (and no, I don’t mean the wall!)? How about taking a drawing class? Pick one thing you can do that will make you feel great.
10. Train Your Mind
“You are what you eat.” You’re familiar with that term, right?
The same applies to what you think about. All the decisions we make, our beliefs, the foods we choose to eat, how we treat others, and our decisions as a whole, all stem from our minds.
Training your mind is the key to changing your life!
Focus less on changing your circumstances and manipulating the behavior of others. Choose to focus on how you will respond instead.
Shape the woman want to become one decision and thought at a time.
Decide this will be the year you will not allow yourself to think negatively any longer.
Quit thoughts like “I knew I couldn’t do it,” or, “I knew it wouldn’t work out.”
This year, no one else on the earth is going to be more supportive, more loving, more kind, more encouraging, and more forgiving to you than you are to yourself.
11. Be Present
Do you find that you’re always pressing on to get the next task done? If you can just get the laundry started. You have to send that last email and wrap up the project before you can finally sit down to take a breather.
Have things become so hectic that you feel like life is a big game of catch up? Oh mama, I know how it feels!
I work from home and there are some days when it’s 5 pm and I have no clue what to cook for supper!
This year, decide it’s going to be different. You may not be able to eliminate certain tasks, but you can make a conscious effort to enjoy your child and the journey of motherhood.
If you start with small, realistic changes you’ll feel less overwhelmed.
Even if all you did was master one change and turn it into a habit for the entire year, imagine how much your life will change.
For example, committing to turning your phone on silent during every meal or choosing the same day and time each week to spend uninterrupted with your child could be a great start.
12. Plan Hubby Time
Life changes so much after we become mothers.
And with that, our spouse can slide down on the priority list. We tend to think we can get back to him later on without realizing how it’s affecting our marriage.
We feel hurt when we have to compete with his devotion to work, his friends, and hobbies. He is no different!
Get creative on ways you can keep your marriage alive, mama! Just because you’re a mommy now doesn’t mean you have to have a stale marriage. 🙂
And don’t wait for him to take the initiative!
Plan that hot date night, even if it’s just in the house. Write special love notes and slip them into his lunch box before he goes to work. Express your gratitude and love to him.
The quality and direction of your marriage is in your hands so take charge this year!
13. Spend Wisely and Save Money
You might not consider yourself to be a big spender.
But there’s a good chance that if you look closely enough, there’s room for improvement that will have a great impact on your finances.
Regardless of how much money you earn, you can pave your way to financial freedom based on the spending, saving and investing choices you make consistently.
If you had an extra $500 a year, how would you spend it? Clothes, coffee, mini-vacation, home repairs?
None of these are wrong. But what if you chose to invest that money by starting your own business.
Countless women (myself included) have gone on to make more money than they ever did in their day job working part-time or full-time.
Starting a business doesn’t always require digging yourself into debt. Get inspired by stories of well-known people who have successfully started their own business with very little money.
The best part is that running a successful business from home is completely possible!
Check out this post on starting a blog as this is the first step to starting a business online!
14. Carve Out Learning Time
Have you wanted to start something new, but just didn’t have the time?
When my twins were babies, I took a water painting class at my local college.
I wanted to adult time and to fuel my creativity as a new mom. Don’t let new mom fatigue hold you back from starting a mom blog, or taking a cooking class or start a new project with your best friend.
15. Write Your Own Pass
Typically, the expectations we place on ourselves reflect those others have placed upon us.
We struggle to live up to those expectations and beat ourselves up when we fail to meet them. Do you do this, mama?
This year, you must be the one that allows yourself to do what you feel is best for your mental and physical health. If that means staying in bed to rest until 8:30 am for two weeks straight, do it.
That might mean allowing your older kids to make their own lunch so that you can focus on breastfeeding, resting, healing, and eating a good meal yourself.
Go ahead and take an hour or so while your baby sleeps to read another chapter in that book you shelved a couple months ago.
My point is, do what you have to do to take care of yourself first this year. Outwardly, you may not appear to be doing as much as other moms. But at least you’ll feel better!
16. Exercise
Even mild exercising can have so many health benefits. You’ll even be able to think more clearly.
Setting huge, unrealistic goals is (I believe) the reason why many people abandon their New Years resolution during the first two or three months of the year.
If you start small and have success with creating those new habits, you can always tack on more later. This is easier than starting too big, and then reducing your goals later.
Create a plan that works for you. It may just be getting out to take a walk for 20 minutes 3 times a week. I was able to lose the baby weight simply from stroller walking and eating healthily!
17. Set Boundaries
Doesn’t it seem like there’s always something calling your name?
When you finally sit down to rest or enjoy some time with your little one, then the phone rings! Or you notice the email you’ve been waiting on just came in.
The distractions are endless.
If you work from home, it’s almost worse because you can’t clock out! Unless you set those limits of course.
Don’t make your little one compete for your attention. Make family time your family time. Everything else can wait until another appointed time.
18. Eat Healthy
It can be hard to get in the habit of eating healthy after pregnancy for sure. Especially if you indulged most of your cravings during pregnancy.
The key to reaching your weight goal my not be to go cold turkey right away. Everyone is different.
If you don’t give yourself permission to slowly make the transition, you may delay taking any action at all.
Try to slowly introduce new healthy dishes into your daily or weekly diet at a pace that’s comfortable for you.
For example, if you fall weak for desserts, make some time to find healthier desserts you can make from home. There are a ton you can make with natural ingredients and sweeteners!
You can also begin packing your own lunches from home when you work or run long errands with baby.
The more consistent you are, the more you will form these choices into new habits.
19. Stop Complaining
Complaining sucks the joy right out of your life, mama! And it’s ever so subtle and habitual. We’re quick to hear it in others but not usually in ourselves.
“I wish I could could be a stay at home mom and escape my 9-5 job to be home with my little one,” or “Ughhhh, my child won’t stop crying! Be thankful you have a child that actually takes naps.”
Or how about this?
“My husband works too much and never has any time for me.”
We might not always verbalize our complaints.
But it doesn’t really change the fact that we’re still complaining. From the richest to the poorest, married or unmarried, sick or healthy, we all have things in our lives that aren’t what we want them to be.
But complaining doesn’t change our circumstances.
It certainly doesn’t change the people around us either. If we wait for things to be perfect in every area of our lives all at once before we’re ever grateful, we’ll end up waiting a lifetime.
Instead, choose to think on the good in every situation, mama. It’s there, trust me.
20. Choose Forgiveness
Is there someone that has hurt you so much that you’ve decided you will never forgive them? Will you decided that this year is going to be the year you will forgive that person?
Maybe you’ve heard it before, but choosing unforgiveness hurts you (not the other person)!
They may get trickles of pain, but it’s nothing close to the hurt you’re causing yourself. It’s like having cancer that eats away at you until it finally destroys you.
Bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness is not worth holding on to.
When you forgive, it doesn’t mean you approve of what the other person has done.
But it does mean that you are releasing them from the inner prison where you’re holding them captive. You’re choosing let go of it so that you can heal, mama.
Choose to forgive everyday.
When your husband promises he’s going to do something for you or the kids and doesn’t deliver. When you give your child clear instructions to do something and they only perform half the task. When your boss is rude or offensive to you.
Oh, and don’t forget to forgive yourself!
I urge you to make this a resolution for the New Year! Without forgiveness, you will always remain a prisoner. Forgiveness is freedom.
New Year Resolutions to Being a Better Mom
There you are, mama! 20 great resolutions you should make for the New Year.
If you can’t commit to all of them, choose a couple and stick to them. Taking care of you is absolutely essential to maintaining excellent health. You matter!
As you make these changes in your life, you’ll begin to feel so different.
Hopefully less stressed too! You’ll be the mom that your baby needs you to be. Just remember to keep at it. If you stop for a little while, don’t worry, just jump back in and keep going!
Comment down below to let me know which of these you’re going to try this year. Which ones have you tried already that you found made your life better? Can’t wait to hear!
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