Family traditions
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Anonymous
| What are some of your favorite family traditions that you do with your kids? |
Anonymous
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First day of school frozen yogurt
Last day of school ice cream |
Anonymous
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During COVID we instituted "Whatever Wednesdays" which means that once everything you need to do for the day (school, homework, chores, etc.) you can eat whatever you want for dinner (within reason, it can't inconvenience someone else) and do whatever you want until bedtime. My husband and I both work from home and our twins were in K in March 2020 when school shut down. That led to a ton of together time (which was great in many ways, I'm not complaining about our situation at all), but after spending 24 hours a day under the same roof and eating three meals a day together, we decided that we needed something to break up the monotony. So on Wednesdays everyone could do whatever they wanted to do and eat whatever they wanted to eat. It was a nice mid-week reset that everyone looked forward to because no one had to plan or cook or schedule their time, they could just do what they wanted when they wanted it.
Now that they're back in school full-time, my husband and I are still working from home so we have family breakfasts together every morning and dinners together most nights unless there are doing their sport, in which case the parent taking them (we switch off) will eat dinner with them while the other often works later. We are fortunate enough not to work weekends, and because we have twins who do the same sport at the same time, the four of us can all go to competitions together. We are also lucky enough to have help around the house, so we have a ton of together time on weekends when we eat, play, and hang out together. As a result, on Wednesdays the kids can have their iPads (which are otherwise password protected and allowed only at certain times) or watch TV as much as they want after school once everything is done until bed and they can have whatever they want for dinner and eat it wherever they want (i.e. cereal in front of the TV). So Whatever Wednesdays are our family tradition. |
Anonymous
I did the Ice cream tradition too. |
Anonymous
Do they still go outside and play or just Ipads? In general kids don't even know how to ride bikes anymore, I saw a post saying just 70% of 10 year old know how to ride a bike now, compare to 90% just 10 years ago. I think kids oughta stay kids As long as they can Turn off the screen, go climb a tree get dirt on their hand. |
Anonymous
| Whatever Wednesdays is awesome - great idea. |
Anonymous
Agree! We do Weekly: Taco Tuesdays Friday night pizza and movies Sunday board games night Occasional: Birthday breakfast stack of pancakes with a candle and whipped cream First day of summer vacation beach outing First weekend of summer camping (some years it's had to be tents in the backyard if we couldn't go somewhere) Holiday: Epic Easter egg hunt Advent activity calendar, same every year, with a thing to do each day like write cards, make cookies, write to Santa, decorate tree, along with a religious one that tells the Christmas story |
Anonymous
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Most revolve around holidays. Like tree/gifts at Christmas, going to the 4th of July parade in my DH's hometown, Easter egg hunt.
I have some little rituals I do at home, like the kids and I have a special saying on the first day of every month for good luck, or we do hot chocolate after school when it gets cold enough in the fall. We don't do it weekly, but when we read the kids a book that has a movie adaptation, we will do Saturday movie night and watch the movie with popcorn all snuggled on the couch. We also do more movie nights in the winter time with classic family movies. We have a favorite Mexican restaurant where we do our family birthday celebrations or celebrate stuff like a great report card or end of year recital. |
Anonymous
| First day and last day of school we go to dinner at the Silver Diner. I also began a tradition that after her weekday swim class she gets to pick a place for us to have dinner. |
Anonymous
| MY dd is now a sophomore, every Friday before school start, and on the last day of school, I'll take the day off from work and I would take her to the "Olive Garden." We started that when she started Kindergarten, it started when we went to open house, she wanted to go to eat something "fancy" and she pick "Olive Garden." |
Anonymous
NOT EVERY** |
Anonymous
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Most of ours are specific to holidays, but this post is giving me some ideas for incorporating traditions into our every day.
Some we do are: - ice cream after kids’ concerts or recitals - 4th of July parade - kids help make a bucket list at the start of each summer - breakfast for dinner once ever time DH travels for work - grandparents take kids to IHOP a few days before their first day of school |
Anonymous
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-Crazy Halloween decorations (We pick a theme and run with it)
-Extended family Christmas tree decorating Friday after Thanksgiving. (We host.) -Caviar and potato chips over new years -Christmas Polar Express movie but I’m sure this is on the way out due to kid age. -summer time flower and veg garden. My son and I just plant pots because we have limited space. Husband got into it last year and grows peppers. More informal ones not tied to specific days: -snuggle and snacks TV time. My son and I go crazy getting backs out of the pantry and eat a little of everything while watching TV. -bedtime snuggle and chat maybe once a week. -duet music practice (son and mom) I think I’m not organized enough to have a tradition for every first and last day of school, post recital and games. |
Anonymous
| Forgot Valentine’s Day heart shaped pepperoni pizza. |
Anonymous
| Our main tradition is visiting urgent care while on vacation. |