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parents panel
Parents Panel: What's one family tradition you'll keep up as the kids get older?
Birthday trips to the zoo, Fourth of July barbecues, and the annual family spring clean.
AS PART OF TheJournal.ie’s weekly Family Magazine, we wanted to create a space for parents to share their views. A place where mums and dads could share their experiences, lessons learned, and even mistakes along the way.
This week, we want to know which traditions and routines our panel members have established at home – and how they’ll keep them up as the kids grow.
What’s one family tradition you’ll keep up as the kids get older?
Here’s what they had to say…
Our Fourth Of July barbecue: We celebrate two big American holidays I grew up with, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. My mum used to give me one early Christmas gift on Thanksgiving each year and I’ve started that with Charlie, too. We had a lovely big barbecue last year on Fourth Of July with friends and plan to do the same this year. It’s nice to be able to enjoy these holidays as a family as I would have done growing up, even if we can’t get back to the US for them.
- Kait Quinn
The annual weekend away with the relatives: I grew up eating dinner with my family all together around the dining table and it’s something I’ve continued with our kids. As an extended family (granny, uncles, great aunts, cousins, second cousins etc) we also have an annual weekend away somewhere in Ireland every year, which has ended up becoming a tradition.
- Ross Boxshall
The first day of school photos: It is very hard to hold on to family traditions as the kids get older, especially with an age gap of 18 years between the eldest and youngest. The ones that we have managed to keep are our big family hugs, and a photo on the first day of school every year. We also fit a photo in every Christmas.
- Denise Cumiskey
Our family spring clean: We do a big spring cleaning day when the weather starts to warm up, getting the whole family involved and usually finishing with a big roast dinner and a cake for dessert as a reward. About two years ago we decided to start marking the old Celtic calendar traditions in our house, like Bealtaine, Lughnasadh, Samhain, Yule and Imbolc. We wanted to teach the kids about old traditions, and to have a few holidays that weren’t centered around presents and sweets.
- Susannah O’Brien
Our ‘big day out’ in December: My favourite family tradition is our annual ‘big day out’ for Christmas. Each year we choose a day on the run up to Christmas to visit Santa, go to the cinema and head out for dinner. Now that kids are older we have started to substitute the Santa visit for another activity, like bowling!
- Ken Hyland
Birthday trips to the zoo: Sunday mornings are our little traditional outings. If it’s not raining, we’ll go to the beach for a morning walk. If the weather is bad, we’ll go out for a nice breakfast together. We also seem to bring Tymek to the zoo for his birthday every year (twice so far!) and I think we’ll keep it going as we all really enjoy it.
- Marta Lisiecka
Phone-free mealtimes: Our son has just turned four so we are trying to establish some family routines with him. One tradition that we are certainly working on is eating together at the table and “having chats”. No electronics, just talking about our day or anything interesting. At bedtime, one of us will always read to him too, and we find this can be the time that he will tell us things about his day or what he’s thinking about. It can be a lovely time together.
- Olly Keegan
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