The Things Kids Remember

I want my kids to have happy childhood memories. I know that having traditions is one way to help kids remember those early years with fondness. Kevin remembers almost nothing before the age of 10, and most of my memories are of significant trauma, not fun family things.

To change this for our children, Kevin and I agreed to come up with some traditions our kids could look forward to. Here is the warning: if you try this, it may backfire.

Here are some of our traditions:

The kids get a new Christmas ornament each year for the tree.
We chop down our own Christmas tree and string popcorn for it.
We also bake Holiday themed cookies or cupcakes for all major holidays.
The kids buy each other small gifts for Christmas and Birthdays using their own money.
The kids make handmade gifts for grandparents each year.
We take the kids to Disneyland for their third birthday (thus our trip next week since Ellis turned 3)
We go to Apple Hill to pick pumpkins and go to the pumpkin patch up there.
We go out to dinner for birthdays and the birthday person gets to pick the place and the cake.
We do a family vacation at least every two years - the kids big for every year.
We scrapbook the family vacation as a group for our album.
We pose for pictures the first day of school and they always get a fun shirt for the first day.
The boys names all start with E, and one of the children has their father's name as the middle name (the boys love this and refer to themselves as the "E brothers")

You can see the list starts to feel endless. I find joy in doing most of these things with and for the kids. Even if I forget some of them, the kids will remind me - or hold me accountable. Sometimes life  interferes, and it isn't possible to complete one of our traditions.

For example, last year we were in the middle of remodeling our house and moving, so we didn't go to Apple Hill. The kids thought the world was going to end.

 I was hoping they forgot this year, but the first of October, they asked about going. I told the kids we had apples and pumpkins in our garden and didn't need to go. The kids were not having it.

They convinced me we needed to go. How you may ask? Ethan simply plucked my heart strings. "But mom," he told me, "it is a tradition, and I thought you wanted us to have happy memories?"

Told you those traditions would backfire. Set the expectations your children have very low, and you will never disappoint them.