A Spin on Family Traditions
By Linda Ligon, Family & Kids
When life progresses in a predictable pattern, filled with daily routines and family traditions, it provides kids with a sense of security and belonging. Setting aside time out of your busy schedule for favorite traditions that you kids enjoy is a small way of letting them know you love them. Here are some new traditions that Facebook influencer Arsalan Moin (@psychtreatment) recommends adding to your family’s routine.
- Role Reversal – Freaky Friday
Once a season, swap roles for one evening. The kids set the bedtime, parents ask for snacks. Role reversal builds empathy quickly, faster than any parent lecture on empathy ever could. Kids see how difficult it is to be in charge, and they will understand why they need to respect you and the house rules you have created.
- Build momentum with visible success – The Weekly Win Wall
Dedicate a wall or poster board to weekly wins. Everyone writes or draws one thing they are proud of. Visible success creates momentum, and then your child’s brain starts scanning for more wins to add. As a result, achievement stops being random. It becomes a pattern your kids build on purpose.
- Take away the shame from mistakes – The Mistake Celebration
When someone messes up, announce it with fanfare. “We have a mistake to celebrate!” Then talk about what was learned from the mistake. Standford research shows that reframing failure into a learning experience and evidence of trying reduces shame and increases resilience.
- Create a sense of belonging with Cultural Dinner Night
Select a country, try its music, food or words from its language. Newness fires curiosity, and curiosity is one of the brains safest learning states. Thus, when families explore together, difference feels like connection and the world gets smaller.
- Practice generosity with “Trade A Toy” Tradition
Before every birthday or holiday, choose one toy to donate to another child. Making space for something new requires letting go of something old. Research shows that when you practice generosity, it eventually becomes part of who you are and no longer feels like a sacrifice.
- Teach Kids to Repair Things – Fix it Friday
One night a week, tackle one broken thing together. It could be a wobbly chair, a door that does not lock properly, anything around the house that needs fixing. Teach kids that broken things do not automatically need to be replaced. They are fixable.
- Help kids focus on Gratitude – The Complaint Jar
Every time someone in your house complains, they put a quarter in the ‘Complaint Jar.’ At the end of the month, use the money for something fun together. Negativity becomes visible, and gratitude becomes profitable. The brain learns ‘What you focus on, you feed.’
- Introduce new foods with The One Bite Rule
Start introducing new foods with a ‘one bite with no pressure’ policy. Tell your child that she can spit it out and make a face if she does not like it, but she has to try one bite. Research shows that repeated exposure to new foods without force reduces food anxiety and increases willingness to try new foods. Adventurous eating does not result from forcing your child to try new foods, it comes from low-stakes practice.
- Teach kids how to entertain themselves with The Boredom Rule
Every time your child says she is bored, enforce twenty minutes of doing absolutely nothing. This means a screen-free time during which she has to sit and figure out how to entertain herself. This teaches your child that under stimulation is not punishment. Rather, it is the birthplace of great ideas.
