A Few Thoughts on Creating New Family Traditions
Some of my ideas for building family togetherness can be a bit unconventional, I know. One of my most recent hair-brained ideas for beefing up our family togetherness mojo was to start raising bees and harvesting honey together.
Admittedly, this idea wouldn't be so hair-brained for many families, but it's something that would be pretty challenging for full-time travelers like us.
Can you imagine those poor bees living on the bumper of an Airstream or out in the middle of the ocean on a catamaran? Probably not, but for some reason, I could.
It was probably my serious raw honey addiction or my beautiful friend with a bee agriculture business that gave me the idea, but whatever the cause, I started dreaming about a daily family ritual of beekeeping and quickly found myself thinking that having a few bee boxes was just what my family needed to really get our togetherness mojo back.
"This could be just the thing!"
Have you ever thought that? Or am I the only mama out there frantically looking for that next great thing to make my family closer?
Thankfully I have a husband who keeps my hair-brained ideas somewhat under control. Raising bees probably wouldn't work while living on a catamaran anyway, he says, so I let that dream go - for now, at least.
And every time I let a family dream go, I wonder,
"Can we still have a deep connection as a family without that one thing?"
The answer, as it turns out, is yes.
Thankfully, my family hasn't fallen apart without being able to raise bees and harvest our own honey. We've also been able to build togetherness without doing a lot of my other hairbrained ideas too.
But there's something I think every family needs to build lasting togetherness - family traditions.
The old ones, the new ones, and the experimental ones too.
I bet you might share a few of these oldie goldies with us:
Saturday morning cartoons and long breakfasts
Hot cocoa on crisp, fall mornings
Bedtime stories
4th of July fireworks
Family movie nights
Back-to-school shopping trips
Trick-or-treating with the cousins on Halloween
New pajamas on Christmas Eve
Turkey and dressing at Thanksgiving
Chex mix, cheese balls, and sausage balls at Christmas
These are the things our kids will remember when they start their own families.
I actually didn't realize just how important those traditions were until I interviewed Jessica Smartt on this month's podcast. She's been creating traditions with her family for years and has a new book out about how to do it. (Check out our podcast by clicking here.) And she's inspired me in the weeks since our interview to start a few new traditions in our home that have brought us some really good togetherness mojo.
Here are a few new family traditions I'm loving right now:
Watching sailing videos on Sunday mornings with breakfast
Sunset paddles on Friday nights
Screen-free Mondays
Fieldtrip Fridays
One on ones at the ice cream or coffee shop
Date nights
Long hikes when mama's brain feels wonky
Campfires and s'mores
I bet you have at least a few too.
What's your favorite family tradition? Do you have a few that persist all year long (not just at the holidays)?
Come chat with us in the email group - I'd love to hear about them!