I’m not planning on making any big resolutions this year — exercise more, eat healthy, keep the house clean — all things I know I need to do but know I’m probably not going to be able to keep! But I can’t resist making a few practical parenting resolutions for 2016. I guess I’m just a resolutions type of person. I love the excitement and anticipation that comes with the beginning of a new year. Just don’t ask me how it’s going sometime in March.

Go to Target less. Target is my weakness. There’s a Super Target about 5 minutes from our house, and I can measure how stressed I am by how many times a week I go there, meaning I have done very little planning in advance and am running short on time and energy. I buy everything at Target (birthday presents, Christmas presents, groceries, furniture…). For convenience and time-saving, Target gets an A+. For cost, quality, and general madness when I have to bring the kids along, not so high a score. You have not seen a crazy Target mom until you have seen me pushing one of those giant two-seater carts at Target with two kids at 5 pm on a weekday.

Try Google Express for Costco. My husband has convinced me to try this out for three months to see if it saves us money on toilet paper, paper towels, and other necessities. We’ve already ordered two times so far. So far so good, but dealing with all the packaging and recycling that comes with the deliveries is going to be a chore in itself!

Brush my daughter’s hair everyday. No more bird nests. My four-year-old has the type of hair that looks fine when she goes to bed, and then she wakes up looking like the Bride of Frankenstein. Usually I just pull it into a ponytail before school and then end up with a “look” from my mom later on in the day, basically saying, “You let her go out in public like that??!” On New Year’s Day, it took both my husband and me almost two hours to brush out all her tangles, and this was after using conditioner. Hoping that just a little bit of maintenance everyday will prevent scenarios like this in the future! And I’m sure I could probably apply this to many other areas of my life…

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Travel more. With kids and without the kids. Our first planned family trip for the year — visiting family in California for spring break. My kids love their cousins so much they face-time them everyday and send text messages composed solely of crying emoticons and “I miss you!” “I miss you too!” back and forth. I think we’re overdue for a trip. (And a trip to Disneyland for their 60th anniversary Diamond celebration if we can squeeze it in!)

Visit more museums with the kids. And not necessarily the children’s ones. The Art Institute in downtown Chicago is one of our favorites. We were only able to make it there once last year, but I think the calm, low stimulation environment is a good fit for HJ’s sensory issues. There’s also a pretty terrific children’s education center there.

Find my older daughter an art teacher. A couple years ago, we tried out a local art studio in an effort to allow HJ to pursue something she loves in addition to all the therapies she was doing. Unfortunately it turned out not to be the best fit, as it was a group class where all the kids had to create the same project and HJ was always putting her own twist on things (the mark of a true artist in my opinion!). I’m hoping to find a private art teacher who might be able to work with HJ one on one and get her to open up a little bit throughout the process as well.

Have the kids go swimming. Swim lessons have always been a difficult sell for my kids. HJ’s fear of going underwater and general anxiety make it nearly impossible to have her stick with lessons for more than a few weeks. Her anxiety has even transferred over to my younger one! My hope is to get them comfortable with going in the water and have fun with swimming as a family, and then maybe they will be ready to try lessons again. It’s difficult convincing the kids to go and motivating myself to take them in the middle of a Chicago winter, but it’s definitely on my list of goals for this year.

Learn how to use our complicated washer and dryer. I cannot even tell you the number of clothes that I have accidentally shrunk in the past year. And I think I remember reading that there was even a steam and press setting… Maybe it’s time to pull out that manual again.

What are your resolutions, parenting or otherwise, for this year? Would love to hear them!