The "R" Word

It's that time of year again, the time where billions of people the world over embark on their New Year's resolutions.

I'm not typically beholden to this particular tradition, or whatever you prefer to call it. But then I thought with a new baby coming, it might be good to make some parental resolutions, get in top form before the arrival of the new one, so to speak. You know the kind of resolutions I'm talking about:

1) Play with your child more often
2) Hug your child more often
3) Yell at your child less often

And the grandaddy of all parental resolutions:

4) Make your child eat more vegetables

Then I got sidetracked by thinking about the word resolution and all its intertwining parts. Resolve, resolute, resoluable, resolvable, resolved. So I pulled out my trusty dictionary - which I really should add to my all-time favorite book lists - and was intrigued by the myriad of meanings the various words represented.

"solving, as of a puzzle, or answering, as of a question"
"answering or made clear"
"to come to a decision"
"that can be resolved"
"the thing determined on"
"determined, unwavering"

I was struck by how definitive all of the meanings were. Every variation of the word "resolve" or "resolution" has a sense of finality to it, of closure, of completion.

But parenting is never really about completion or closure. It's a state of being, a journey. It's not about improving oneself and then checking that item off the list; instead, it's a state of constant betterment. No matter how good we might be, we can ALWAYS strive to be better parents.

So I'm resolving to not make any parental New Year's resolutions for 2009. Oh, I'll still work on improving upon all those items I mentioned (play more, yell less etc...). But I'll do it knowing the job will never really be done.