Traditions for growing families

Family traditions give your children a sense of belonging and create security. Some family traditions evolve accidentally, but they don’t have to. You can decide which ones you’d like to develop for your family. They can be anything from special dishes on birthdays to singing on car trips. They may include old traditions from your childhood as well as new and spontaneous ones.

When developing family traditions:

• Keep your expectations realistic. Attempts at establishing new traditions won’t always go perfectly or even smoothly.
• Choose traditions that fit your family. It’s fine to get ideas from your friends or neighbors. Then customize those ideas to reflect your own interests and values.
• Think about holidays. Traditions often work best around holidays. They might include carving a pumpkin for each member of the family at Halloween, a special dish served at Thanksgiving, or a family outing to choose a live tree at Christmas. Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and the Fourth of July also are holidays that offer opportunities to establish family traditions.
• Consider building traditions around personal days such as anniversaries or birthdays. Perhaps each member of the family could be allowed to choose a special place to eat on his birthday, or a special menu if dinner will be served at home.
• Don't forget weekly traditions. Not all traditions have to be once-a-year occasions. You might choose to go to the movies every Tuesday, eat chicken each Friday, or go out for ice cream on Sunday evenings.
• Build traditions around seasonal events in addition to holidays. These might include building a snowman after the first snow of the season or raking leaves together in the fall.
• Establish traditions to help the family run more smoothly. You might hold monthly family meetings to discuss issues and concerns. Or if family members have trouble agreeing on weekend activities together, you could establish a tradition of taking turns choosing outings from an approved list.
• Start now. In the first two or three years of your child’s life, you can experiment with possible family traditions. Beyond age 3 your child may recall and demand to do it "how we did it last year."
• Be patient. Some traditions are ingrained more quickly than others. With a little repetition your family will recognize the rituals you adopt as a valued part of your life together.

This article brought to you in partnership with Studio One Networks.