Welcome to Jan. 1, 2013 – the day we all vow to be better than we were the year before.

This is the day I am supposed to stop blaming my weight gain on Jason Jr. and Joah, who are now toddlers, and start blaming it on those peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I can’t get enough of.

This is the day we expect everybody to be new and different than they were last year, or yesterday. But parenting does not work that way. I have yet to find that New Year’s light switch to transform me into a new and different parent or my children into new and different boys.

Joah will still be the rowdy 20-month-old at church on Sunday. Jason Jr. will still burp in my face and laugh about it. And my husband and I will still argue over what our children should and should not watch on TV.

But what’s wrong with that?

What’s wrong with entering the New Year the same way you ended the old year? Eventually Joah will go from the rowdy child to the choir boy. But it won’t happen today. Jason Jr. will probably always burp aloud, but one day he will understand how much I hate the sound and smell of burping. But it won’t happen today.

Now, I don’t want to lose my cookies, but I do want to lose weight. And since I’m preparing a grand New Year’s meal that includes cookies, it won’t happen today.

And I’m OK with that.

I’m not living for new children in the New Year or a new me. I’m living for new memories and living to cherish old ones.

Yes, as a parent I have so many concerns. In 2012, our children read less and dropped out of school more. And while the world did not end, if we learned anything in 2012 it is that our days are numbered. While we are preaching change in our children’s lives and shoving New Year’s resolutions in their face, let us also remember to love our kids just the way they are.

And let us remember that rowdy, burping boys don’t need a New Year to show promise — and neither do you!

Tunette Powell is married with two children. You can read her every Tuesday on momaha.com

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