We really want to keep the conversation going about family traditions. So we found an interview with Dr. Susan Coady, a member of the Faculty of the Department of Family Relations and Human Development at The Ohio State University. She taught introductory and advanced courses about the American family as well as a course on Professional Development. When asked why she chose to do extensive research in the area of family traditions she stated,

“There were really two main reasons. First, it was the result of my teaching a class about families to college students. When the college-aged students spoke about their families, they would always be talking about them in terms of traditions. Over time, it became obvious that traditions were what people carried with them and part of what people wanted their families to become. Secondly, while researching I read quite often that traditions were statistically linked to family strength and family satisfaction. We wanted to take a closer look at these phenomena.”

If traditions are actually linked to family strength and family satisfaction, then this issue is an important topic for discussion. For the next few days we are going to attempt to collect as many ideas as possible so we can to help parents identify some creative and healthy family traditions.  Here are some more ideas listed in an article called 10 Family Traditions You Can Start Today on Lifescript.com:

• Have a family date night once a month.

• Enjoy a game night once a week.

• Exercise together on a weekend afternoon.

• Grow a garden together.

• Work on a family photo album.

• Take a grocery shopping trip.

• Go on a yearly camping trip.

• Read a book each night.

• Have a New Year’s picnic.

• Create gifts together.

Any more ideas?