2015 Reflection

Happy New Year!!!!

I feel the new year is a time everyone is setting goals for the year ahead. The normal of no more chocolate, stopping smoking and more exercise. me however, I like to take the time to think about what iv learnt in the past 12 months.

This year has been a challenging one when it comes to James. At the start of January he was a cheeky 3 year old with the normal behaviours of a toddler but as the year went on he seemed to change. His behaviour become more challenging. he stared to back chat and deliberately do things he knew he was not allowed to do. Some days i felt like i was at the end of my tether and just was at a loss with how to control his behaviour. I turned to a method that his nursery was using.

It was a visual aid of the sun, a cloud and a rain cloud. every day he would start on the sun, if he did something he knew he was not aloud he would be moved onto the cloud, if his behaviour persisted he then moved onto the rain cloud and a toy or privilege was taken away from him for a period of time. he then had to work his way back up to the sun. it took a while to get it right but once we did it helped so much and things with him got better. i think the type of child James is he needs constant stimulation or he just gets bored and starts to create.
So that is one thing i learnt this year, to stick to your guns and be consistent.

The second thing i learnt was to take time for myself.
I am a big people pleaser and find it hard to say no. I'm not saying that is a bad thing but sometimes putting everyone else's happiness first can be draining. I work hard to raise my boys, look after my husband to be and run my home. I was finding that i was running around every day doing things for everyone else,  getting run down. I wasn't looking after my body or mind and you could tell. Most days i should not of left the house!!. After i got ill for a few day i realised i needed to start taking some time for me, if that was reading a book for an hour or having a shower in peace or even going to bed early to paint my nails.It really helped lift my spirits and gave me the chance to start feeling like Tara again and not just mum.

So why don't you take the time to reflect on the past 12 months and think about what you have learnt!!