A few of my favorite Magpie reader comments over the years have been reflections on the tiny but meaningful traditions (often revolving around mealtimes!) that we have enjoyed with our parents:
“I told my mom recently that my favorite dinner was her “plate of little things” and she laughed and said those were her most tired, least inspired, most fed-up nights. She would just grab random items in the kitchen, cut them up, put them on a plate. But to me, magic!” – Jessica
“I grew up with divorced parents. My sister and I lived with my mom and every Thursday was “girls night” (which looking back makes me chuckle because every night was girls night at our house! Ha!) but on Thursdays we’d venture into town for Chinese takeout and a stroll through the video store to pick out a chick flick. We watched so many wonderful movies over takeout. After finishing dinner, we’d sit on the floor and my mom would paint our toenails. It was the absolute best.” -Brittney
“Sunday night supper was always buttered, salted popcorn and apples sliced and dipped in peanut butter. And maybe a glass of milk. As an adult, I learned from my mother that this meal was a financial necessity. But to us kids it felt like great fun.” – Kristin
What fun little traditions have you established with your own kids?
Please share!
Post-Scripts.
+What makes you nostalgic for your childhood?
+Memories of my childhood home.
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apple picking each October with my daughter
Iconic!!
On my husband’s golf league nights, I usually take the girls out to dinner. We tend to rotate through Culver’s, CFA, Steak ‘n Shake, shake shack, etc. They love it because they can have a shake or frozen custard with their dinner, and I love it because I’m not up for preparing food and cleaning the kitchen and doing bedtime solo. And I enjoy a milkshake myself 🙂
I love this so much! I find it fascinating that several Magpies have said similar things — the times when mom is really low on energy and reaching for something a little simpler / lower lift turn out to be super magical for everyone! xx
My husband used to travel internationally for weeks at a time for work and I started “pizza picnics” with the kids on the eve of his return. At that point of his trips, the single parent fatigue would hit hard and pizza on paper plates on the living room floor with a movie was about all I could manage. The kids loved the novelty of eating in the living room (and while watching TV!) and I could steal 2 restorative hours on the couch. It’s been 14 years since the inaugural picnic and it’s still one of my kids’ favorite traditions.
Love love love! Felt so cozy just thinking of this. When Landon is out of town, I often let my kids lay in bed with me — a rarity for them! — and they think it’s so special!
xx
No kids, but thought I’d share what sticks out from childhood: driving around to look at Christmas lights after Christmas Eve mass, making gingerbread houses as siblings and decorating together while listening to holiday songs, and going to see a movie after the Thanksgiving meal with our cousins, pizza night every Friday (I now realize this was because my parents were tired!), and having chips/salsa after Sunday mass, sitting around the table swapping newspaper sections, When we were renting, my husband and I used to do gratitude night on Thursdays and we’d make a drink at home, get take out, and reflect on what was going well/what we were grateful for!
These are so lovely, Lauren! I love the idea of chips/salsa after Sunday Mass :). Cute.
xx
On the nights my husband works late, which are usually Wednesdays, the kids eat their dinner out on the terrace, and it’s usually grilled cheese and gazpacho or hot dogs and fries in the air fryer. Maybe some fruit. Ice cream cones in hot weather. I let them build with their cardboard tool kit and get completely filthy, or make mudpies, or get playdoh all up in there. The messier the better because then they get a long drawn out bath, pajamas, and a Disney movie. Magic.
All the other weeknights the TV goes off early, and they each get a chapter of a chapter book. My daughter doesn’t have the patience for the full chapter yet but we make the attempt! We have to do it before bedtime though because my kids find it too exciting. And then after dark we have “tea time” in the kitchen. Theirs is hot water with apple juice, mine is rooibos chai, and they have a little bedtime snack before we brush teeth. We’ve been using our battery operated candles. If they’re not ready to go to bed we just quietly tidy in the dim light, usually I have a much cleaner kitchen and they go to bed really ready to rest!
Whenever we cook my daughter has her little apron and my son digs his chef costume out of the dress up bin, and they say “oui chef!” And stick to their little jobs.
On Friday nights if my daughter goes to bed early I let my son watch TV in my bed snuggled up while I read my book. Right now he likes Rick Steves.
If the kids are fighting I get out the watercolors and send them out to the terrace. They have separate sets and they get really absorbed.
My husband and I tell the kids stories from our family or from when we were kids. I read somewhere that it helps kids be resilient, and we’ve really leaned into it.
Every year I buy a new ornament based on something funny the kids did this year or are into. I haven’t told anyone I’m doing that! But it’s just for me.
These are fantastic. Love the idea of the watercolor redirect and may adapt that to my kids, who can get deep into bickering mode on the weekends…I try to stay out of it / let them work through but sometimes they really need a refocus / reset. The idea of telling stories from childhood is also lovely! My daughter’s current teacher often does this in the classroom, and Emory *loves* the stories, deeply relates to them, finds her teacher much more human and approachable because of it.
xx