Kids are creatures of habit, they expect things to be the same as they have been in the past. For me, this was specifically important as we moved in the past year. Both of our girls were at an age where they knew the rituals that we had been doing at our old house. Thus J-Mom and I knew that we would have to find a routine very soon in the new home to make our lives much happier all around.
Rituals can surround anything such as bedtime, dinnertime, visits to the library or other things. You also can set up rituals around holidays or other such special events such as always going to your grandparents house the day after thanksgiving or other such activities.
Many of the things that I remember in growing up are the rituals that my parents had for me as I was growing up and in talking to many other parents about rituals, these are the same things that they start with in their responses. In making/developing rituals for your own kids becomes that much more important, as your kids will definitely remember.
In researching this topic I came across a few sites that I thought that I would share with all of you:
- http://www.childcareaware.org/en/subscriptions/dailyparent/volume.php?id=16
- http://www.preschoolerstoday.com/resources/articles/traditions.htm
- http://www.squidoo.com/family_traditions
- http://family.tips.net/Pages/T003592_Childrens_Bedtime_Rituals.html
So what rituals were important to you when you were growing up? What rituals do you have with your kids now, or do you want to start doing with your family?
