Your book sounds great and I would love a copy, I’ll be in touch via email.

My childhood traditions included:
- dinner with everyone, few exceptions;
- come to the dinner table promptly;
- [sometimes] holding mum’s hand while falling asleep;
- birthday celebrations;
- cycling safely around the neighbourhood

As us kids are ourselves parents now, our “remixed version” of respective traditions are:
- weekly round-robin extended family dinners, 3 generations together;
- no reading at the dinner table even if it’s the last Harry Potter book;
- I chat with my 3 yr old little girl while putting her to bed, sometimes singing together or to her;
- joint birthday celebrations of every cousin;
- taking them swimming or to the park; older cousins have even won sports competitions at school & clubs;
- maintaining that need for family bonding.

I wrote about one of these traditions in my blog, about wanting to be their best friend, arising from Mum being a listener.

We are the only people kids know in their very early self-awareness years, and it’s up to us guide them in this hostile & cynical world.

@Mother Earth :: That is great that you have established that time with your daughter. Conversations over dinner are a great way to stay in touch with all the small details of your child’s life.

@Elizabeth :: It is great that you do those things together. There are days where it is a challenge to even get dinner and homework in before bed so you’re doing great.

@Chris :: Thanks for the feedback and I love hearing that thinking of your traditions made you smile. I love your “Sun God” tradition. On our street, we have a little tradition of having a special breakfast for all of the kids on the first day of school and a pizza party on the last day of school. They love it.

@NewYearsEve :: We’ve never been the big party type on New Years and when I met my wife, I included her in our family tradition and in recent years we have expanded our tradition to include neighbors and friends. In our eyes it beats the alternative and worrying about people being out drinking and driving.

As far as household traditions go…my wife started a tradition a few years ago where we celebrate the coming of summer. Every June (usually the evening of the last day of school) we open our “Sun God” box and usher in the beginning of summer. In this box we have a popsicle stick figure (the “Sun God”) and a pad of paper. On the pad of paper we keep a journal of the favorite memories and accomplishments from last summer as well as a list of hopes and dreams for the coming school year. Each member passes the pad around and reads what they wrote last year. We try to see if our goals for the school year were met while we have a couple of laughs over how much things have changed from the previous summer. Then at the end of summer (the evening before the first day of school), we share dinner and update the journal for the current summer. We have been doing this for the past three years. It has been a great way for us to look back on the fun we have had in the past and also set goals for the future.

Hey, at least we do it together.

Gotta work on that.

Mother Earth
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com

A random thought came to mind (although it doesn’t really apply to me) though: What if your family hates each other’s gut? (But then again, if that’s the case, traditions are probably not the biggest concern, huh?) =P

The beautiful thing is that the activity doesn’t matter so much as just taking the time to cherish your loved ones is all you need. Quality traditions can really have an impact on all aspects of your life and I love hearing that your family takes regular walks as well.

I get really attached to our family traditions – especially the ones we have around the holidays. But even the simple ones have made a huge difference in how our family bonds – just going for regular walks together has become a magical family time that everyone looks forward to.