Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Reading
Reading
No room in your familys hectic schedule for quality time? These mini
rituals make it easier to carve out special bonding moments.
Most of the time it feels like our little family of three my kiddo, my
husband, and I is living inside a tornado. Our days and weeks feel like a
whirlwind of work, school, activities, dinners, breakfasts, and events.
Often it feels like a race that leaves us winded and exhausted.
Id love for us to have more time to chill out and catch our collective breath,
but thats not always possible. What I try to do instead: Come up with tiny
traditions that can anchor and stabilize our crazy busy days. Theyre nothing
fancy or complicatedjust simple tricks to turn regular moments into
memorable ones. Doing that makes the ordinary just a little more
extraordinary, and ensures that our daily race to the finish line always has a
few meaningful pauses in it. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. Civilized mornings
When my husband travels, my daughter and I have civilized mornings. We
put on classical music, make a nice breakfast, drink some tea, and
sometimes even speak with a British accent. Its our little girls tradition and
it makes a hectic morning a bit more, well, civilized.
2. Gratitude lunchbox notes
Every morning I write a little note and put it in my daughters lunchbox. I
take a few seconds to think of something to thank her for or to tell her
whatever it is that Im looking forward to us doing that weekend. Its my
little gratitude ritual every morning and I know its something she looks
forward to at school.
3. Friday family movie night
By the time we all get home on Friday night were exhausted, so cooking is
out of the question. We get takeout and have a picnic while we watch a
movie in the living room. Its like a big collective family exhale.
4. Random-dinner Sundays
On Sunday nights I cook up a storm for the coming weekI make and prep
dinner for four days ahead. So for dinner that night we have our very official
random dinner. Sometimes its leftovers. Sometimes its breakfast for
dinner. Sometimes its really just a collection of random stuff we find in our
fridge. Its low-key and relaxed and it lets us finish out the weekend on a
spontaneous note.