SAM'S CENTS
Rituals
As a busy parent wanting to make the time you have with your kids as significant as possible, rituals are the most high-value additions to your life and add enormously to a strong family unit.
Our family has instituted a Friday family movie night, and we all look forward to it. When we moved to California, we started a neighborhood Halloween party, inviting all the kids on the block. We also celebrate national food holidays, a surefire way to give you the “fun parent” title.
Rituals can be as simple as trying a new kind of lasagna every Thursday night or celebrating the arrival of the new seasons together. Our newest ritual is that each child gets to go to a foreign country with mommy when they turn 10. Today I leave for London with Ella and I am not sure which of us is more excited. Actually, I am pretty certain it's me.
In my experience, once you do a ritual three times, it turns into a tradition—and nothing bonds a family like traditions.
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