What are some of the things or kinds of rituals you guys do with your family? Some of the things that I still do that I got from my mom are that, like, I never grew up cuddling, but, like, on the weekends because my mom was so busy, I would lay in bed with my mom and I would cuddle and watch TV. And even today, my daughter, when she was not feeling well, stayed home from school, and I said, “Do you want to just put a movie on?” I had three clients that ironically canceled, so obviously the universe knew my daughter needed me some time. And so we just put a movie on in the living room, and we just watched the series together. I’m like, “Wow, that’s what my mom used to do if I was sick on a weekend and she was able to be home; we would just lay in bed and watch TV.” We were laying in bed, but just watching and laughing together and talking about them together.
And on weekends, we always go to my grandma’s house for lunch or whatever, and I still feel like when I’m able or whatever, I’m going to have my kids over on the weekends for breakfast or lunch. I love cooking for my kids. My son, fortunately, lives ten minutes away. He’s like, “Mom, can we come up for dinner?” And I’m like, “Sure, let me wrap something up.” I love that. I love that they know that they can come home. I thoroughly enjoy going to my mom’s because, number one, it’s just home. It’s my mom’s cooking. I think that there’s a sense of that, like, when you eat mom’s cooking, how it just brings you. It’s almost like safety. It’s for safety and security.
But I think it’s a great idea to think about the traditions that we’re creating in our children’s lives that they get to continue with our grandkids. And then we get to be like, “Oh, I remember when your dad was little or when your mom was little, we used to do this, too.” And that’s how traditions carry on and stuff. But that’s also how values carry on. Values also carry on in the same way we introduce traditions.
Listen to the full episode here:
“Cherished Connections: Cultivating Love and Traditions Across Generations” | with Cindy Gould
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