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Aug
9
Quality family time is a pricless gift
Filed Under family life
School starts for my kids in a couple of weeks so I’m doing my best to enjoy the more than enough quality time I have with them during the summer months. Once school starts so does our very busy schedule of homework, sports, dance classes, and music lessons. Squeezing quality family time in is not easy so we have created “family traditions”. These are traditions that our kids look forward to and will hopefully remember with fond memories when they are adults.
Our first tradition was our commitment to our faith. We attend mass on Saturday nights as a family followed with going out to dinner and letting the kids take turns deciding what restaurant we should dine at. Church may not be their favorite thing to attend but they really look forward to dinner out. I hope we can keep them enjoying this tradition into their teenage years even if it means them bringing a friend.
Another tradition is our Family Council which we have every month or so. We come together at the kitchen table and take turns telling each family member what we love about them then we go back around to tell each other any concerns or problems we have. This has been a great way to improve our family communication. Our kids love it because it gives them an open forum to tell me and my husband what their beefs are with us.
Our kid’s favorite traditions involve play. They all love to perform so they love putting shows on for us. Their dressing up, dancing, and acting out plays will be such a treasured memory for us once they outgrow this tradition. “Hard Tricks” with my husband is another tradition we will miss once they are grown. They have some very impressive balancing on daddy’s feet and flip-over tricks.
We also have some very important holiday traditions with our extended family. There’s the Annual Turkey Contest where the kids use their imaginations to come up with a turkey creation. All the kids win first prize but they don’t seem to catch on because one may win first prize for best use of pine cones and another wins for best use of a rubber glove and feathers. They all win a cheap dollar store prize and then an announcement is made for the first place winner to get their picture taken so they all run in to stand for their photo. They are either truly oblivious to the fact that they are all first place winners or are just pretending because it’s so much fun.
We also have an Appreciate The Christmas Tree party the Saturday after Thanksgiving where we honor our godchildren. Godparents and godchildren swap gifts and Santa stops by for a visit.
Another way we spend quality time with our kids is to take two family vacations a year. We kick off every Christmas season with a trip to Branson, Missouri and take a beach vacation every summer.
Quality time is the best gift I can give my kids and it doesn’t have to cost a dime. Cuddling before bed, reading books, playing board or card games, and listening to them with my full attention is the kind of quality time my kids want most. I’m doing my best to give them my most quality time now because all too soon will come the time when they won’t want it as much as they do now.
This post is brought to you in conjunction with Parent Bloggers Network & EA’s Wii-Boogie, a family gaming experience. Shake it. Sing it. Create it.
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2 Responses to “Quality family time is a pricless gift”
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You are so right!! My daughter’s favorite thing is cuddling!! Mine, too!
I love this! Right now I have a demanding almost 3 year old, and a 10 month old going through the myriad of tests I mentioned on my blog - it’s all I can do most days to stop feeling irritated by the former, and swamped with worry about the latter. Thank you for this reminder about quality time, and being ‘present’ with and for my kids.
On the Mass issue - any tips on getting young children to behave. I go each week - but DH no longer practices and so it’s been easier to leave the kids at home with him. I think it’s getting to the point now though where I really should bring Miss E with me. Anytime I’ve brought her before has left me exhausted from trying to keep her semi quiet, and barely hearing anything during the Mass, so that’s kind of put me off taking her. I know she’ll never learn if I don’t bring her on a consistent basis though. Hmmm - think I answered my own question