New Year, New Me….Not Really | On Tour With the Kid

I don’t know about you, but I felt like I limped to the end of 2025. If it needs a visual, it's like one of those marathon runners who can see the finish line, but whose legs are going out from under them; they end up needing physical assistance, and when they take one step over the threshold, they pass out face-first on the road.

Even Christmas this year was the most un-Christmasy the holiday has ever felt. It was lovely, nothing bad happened, but we were all exhausted. I put the tree up at the very last minute; to be fair, I’m paying for it now. The tree is still up and seems to be mocking me every time I walk past it. I’d put a sheet over it, but I figured making it look like a ghost wouldn't help the situation.

There is always so much internal pressure, particularly if the year prior wasn't ideal, that the second the clock ticks over to the new year, you need to change your habits. To eat better, to get more organised, to be a whole new you. It is the absolute worst time to try and get into a routine. If you are anything like me, the week and a half between Christmas and the weekend after New Year's Eve, I couldn’t tell you what day of the week it was if my life depended on it. This is why I always miss the bin collection around this time. If you have school-age kids, you aren’t even in your regular routine; your house is chaos.

It’s also full of food because you have to be ready for people to drop over at the drop of a hat. For two days, I ate nothing but leftovers from a cheese platter we made when friends dropped by. This is slightly off topic, but I bought Hot Cross Buns at Coles on Boxing Day… really. If you have promised yourself that from 1 January you will complete a new task every day, you are setting yourself up to fail. Four days in, when you don’t uphold the resolution, you feel guilty, and the shame spiral starts.

For instance, I decided that I was going to get my overflowing closet sorted out. This is a massive job, but I was determined. I counted all my clothes, worked out how much long-hang and short-hang I needed, and how much space I needed for bags and shoes. I was on a roll. What I have now is almost 200kg of IKEA wardrobe parts still in the boxes they came in, piled up in my lounge room. Work got busy, and I realised you need a second person to put them together. I actually put my coffee on it this morning. Just like the Christmas Tree, the gigantic cardboard frame mocks me every time I walk past.

I’m not sure you should take advice from a woman who can’t take her decorations down and is currently eating Hot Cross Buns for breakfast on top of a very heavy, inappropriately placed flat-pack wardrobe box, but here it is, regardless…

Give yourself a break, January is a nightmare. 2025 was the year of the Snake. It was about slowly but surely, shedding things that didn’t serve you anymore. 2026 is the year of the horse, which is about forward momentum. A horse doesn’t spend its time feeling guilty. There are times they trot, times they canter, times they gallop at full speed and times they need to be still. As long as you are moving forward, stop feeling bad about how fast you got there.