Single Parent New Year’s Eve Ideas That Work With or Without a Babysitter

There are plenty of single parent New Year’s Eve ideas that can make your evening utterly unforgettable. Just because you’re a single parent doesn’t mean you should have to avoid celebrating the holidays as much as you want to. It’s crucial to balance your own life as well as the lives of your kids.

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We want you to be happy and fulfilled, and if having a fantastic New Year’s celebration will help make that happen, then we want to help with that, too. One of the best ways to ensure you’re happy and fulfilled is to do things that bring you joy. Here, we want to talk about some great single parent New Year’s Eve ideas that can help bring joy to both you and your kids.

Our Best Single Parent New Year’s Eve Ideas For You

• Set Your Own Midnight: This is an excellent idea if you’ve got younger kids who might not be able to make it all the way to midnight. Decide that another time of night will be midnight, then do your countdown at seven or eight pm, and get them into bed early. Then, as Rebecca Cox shares for Frolo, “you’ll wake up into a fresh year after a solid 8 (or more) hours’ sleep, feeling great, and incredibly smug.”
• Dance All Night: Just because you’re at home with your kids doesn’t mean you should have to stay away from dancing like people in the club. It sounds so obvious when you actually say it aloud, but kids love to dance! Spend the evening counting down the hours with regular disco breaks. You could even teach your little ones a move that you’re particularly proud of perfecting. Of all our single parent New Year’s Eve ideas, tiring them out like this is one of the best ways to get them to sleep through the night!
• Kids in Bed? Extra Pamper Time: If your kids haven’t quite been able to make it to midnight, don’t worry, there’s always another countdown to celebrate. When your kids are in bed, you’ve got plenty of time to yourself to enjoy the countdown. We’d recommend having a pamper session: it’s quiet enough that it won’t wake the kids, and it’s luxurious enough that you’ll be having a wonderful time!
• Older Kids? Be the Cool Parent: If your kids are a little older, one of the best single parent New Year’s Eve ideas is to see if you can’t make yourself the cool parent. Ask your child if they’ve got a friend or two they’d like to have round, and let them stay up late to watch the ball drop. Obviously, it’s your call how wild you let them get, but either way, it’s better they do it at home under your watch than out in the streets somewhere.
• A Virtual Countdown via Zoom: A virtual countdown can be a great way to celebrate the new year with other single parents. As a single parent, it may be that you’re not able to leave the house since it means that your kids would be home alone. If others are also looking for single parent New Year’s Eve ideas, then why not have a digital get-together where you can celebrate?
• An “It’s Midnight Somewhere” Themed Party: A Twist on setting your own midnight, this idea involves figuring out time differences so that their midnight lines up with your desired bedtime for your kids. For instance, let’s say you’re in New York, which is four hours behind UTC. At 6 pm in New York, it will be midnight in Switzerland, so you could celebrate a Swiss New Year! According to Lisa Rowell from iMom, this involves dropping some ice cream on the floor. One of the messiest ideas on our single parent New Year’s Eve ideas list, but at least the kids are in bed early.

How to Find a Balance Between Parenting and Living

Striking a balance between parent life and real life can be tough. Thankfully, it’s not impossible: here are our suggestions to make it happen.

• Schedule Time for Yourself: At first glance, this seems silly, but if you know there’s a gap in your schedule, you can fill it with things for you. This little window could be a few moments after you’ve done chores and before you need to go and collect the kids from school. No matter when the moment is, put something for yourself there and you’ll be thankful!
• Evaluate Your Expectations: Journaling is one of the most effective self-care tools there is. With fairly little effort, you can break down why something is bothering you and take steps to resolve it. Write out what your expectations are for yourself as a parent, and then go through them and evaluate how reasonable they are. You’ll be surprised how much forgiveness you can give yourself!
• Ask for Help: If you need help, then ask for it. There’s always a lot going on in the world, and having a lot going on in your life as a single parent isn’t news. If it’s too much for you to manage, then reach out to those around you for help. Even if it’s just a friend coming over to feed your fish once a week, that’s a couple of moments you now have for yourself.

Finding time for yourself during the New Year’s celebrations can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. We hope that our list of single parent New Year’s Eve ideas has helped you plan how you’ll spend your celebration in style.