Hello Crafty Wife readers! I’m excited to be guest posting for Teresa while she’s on maternity leave! I can’t wait to hear all about her new baby and the changes that sweet thing brings to her life. Almost five months ago now, we welcomed the first little one into our family and boy, what an adventure it has been! I have a lot of dreams and hopes for my little family’s future; Fun trips that we should take, traditions that we should start and daily habits that will contribute to the overall happiness of our family unit. There are five things we’ve tried to do since our Bensen boy arrived to start us off on the right foot and I can’t wait to see how they play a role in the success of our family’s future.
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Daily Family Fun
Find a way to play together as a family every single day. Our current fun time is pretty simple because our little guy is still so young, but we still find a way to laugh and have fun together every single day. Starting this daily ritual early, even when your baby isn’t able to interact or do much to participate in family fun, gets you in the habit and will lead to many more, daily moments together as a family in the future. That quality time is critical to your family’s happiness.
Meal Time Together
You may not have time to sit down around the kitchen table together every single day, and that’s ok. The important thing is to have a meal together regularly. If you can pull of dinner every single night, way to be! Maybe you all have time to sit down for a hot breakfast in the morning, or dessert at the end of the day. With our work schedules, my husband and I don’t have a lot of time to eat together during the week, but we make our weekends count. And even if he’s not eating, the baby joins us in the kitchen and is very much a part of the time that we spend together during our meal. Again, we’re making it a habit early on so that later in life, he comes to expect it.
Be Active Together
From the beginning of our relationship, Joe and I have loved to go on late night walks together. After we got a puppy, we went on them even more and now that we live near a gorgeous walking trail, we try to go walking more often. Bensen loves to be outside and observe his surroundings, walks are our dog’s favorite thing in the world and it gives us time to chat with each other without the distraction of house projects. Our kids might not always join us for a nightly walk but the habit of regular physical activity as a family encourages a healthy lifestyle and gives us another way to bond.
Parent/Child Date Night
This isn’t a ritual that we’ll start very early on, maybe when our kids turn two and understand what’s going on, but it’s something that I really want to start in our family and continue hopefully into their adulthood. Father/Son, Father/Daughter, Mother/Daughter and Mother/Son. I want us to have regular one on one time with each of our kids. I would love to be able to plan these monthly, but depending on how many kids we have and our schedules, I think planning them quarterly would be more doable and just as beneficial. Some of the activity ideas that I have are; ice cream cones at McDonald’s, a picnic and playing at the park, a movie at the theater with popcorn and candy, etc. This is one thing that I really can’t wait to do with our kids!
Create a Lasting Tradition
You’ll want to create a lot of lasting traditions, but start with one at a time. Choose a tradition that your family had growing up or something that you’ve always thought would be a fun tradition. Bedtime routines, holidays, morning routines, time apart, etc. can all have a tradition associated with them. One that I want to start soon is to eat pizza in our pajamas and watch a movie together as a family one weekend night a month.
Find rituals that will help build a stronger family relationship and help you make your family life a priority every day. Your kids will always remember the family time, make sure there is lots of it and a lot of fun for them to look back on!
Hop on over to my blog to read about five marriage rituals that you should adopt after your baby arrives! It’s important to set your family up for success, but it’s equally, if not more important, to take time for your marriage. If you don’t make your marriage a priority now, you’ll realize when it’s too late that you’ve let yourselves drift apart.
Thank you to Amberly for guesting posting here today! I love her blog and am so happy to share her awesome posts with y’all. I hope you’ll go check out her page and say hi!
Amberly