Parenting Survival Tips

Holiday Traditions

Hi Parents,

Oh - it's hard to believe that it is that time of year again and everyone is racing to the stores to buy the last ninja turtle or barbie cheerleader doll. I don't know about you, but for me, I can't remember what gifts I received for Christmas when I was a kid, but I do remember the amazing holiday traditions that were a huge part of my family life as a kid. I am so thankful to my parents who created and maintained the holiday traditions that I am able to carry on with my children.

Here are just a few Christmas traditions that we embrace in our home and I would love to hear from you if you have holiday traditions that are a part of your family life.

Christmas Holiday Traditions:

1) Homemade GingerBread Houses:

Every year my boys and I start at the beginning of December and we make a huge Gingerbread House every year. We take a large piece of cardboard and cover it with tinfoil and that is our base. Then we use graham crackers for the walls, white frosting in a can for the mortar, and bowls and bowls of colorful candy and cereals as the decorations for the walls. We make marshmellow snowman for the front yard and licorce to pave the driveway. We take our time and do just a few walls a day so it is a project that lasts us the entire month and we put our finishing touches on our house on Christmas Eve. Every year we try to out-do the previous year with our master creations and then we write in marker on the foil the year and take photos so that we can look back on this holiday tradition that will last a lifetime!    

2) Cookie Baking Feast:

Every year we make more than 25 dozen cookies and spend one whole day in a marathon baking feast together making cookies, decorating them and of course eating them! :-) We put a few dozen in the freezer that will last us throughout the year when we have guests over and then we make a list of friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, etc. that we want to share the others with and then we spend a day driving around delivering cookies and wishing our friends "Merry Christmas". My boys love decorating, eating, and delivering the cookies and this is another holiday tradition that they will remember forever.

3) Gift Codes:

Oh - this is one of my most favorite holiday traditions that I really enjoy passing along to my children. Every year I wrap my boys gifts and then I create a different code for each member of the family and write clues to the code on their gifts under the tree. I try to have all of their gifts wrapped and under the tree at least 2 weeks before Christmas so they can spend hours trying to "break the codes" and figure out who's gifts are who's. Here is an example of some of the codes I have done in the past:

• One son's name begins with N so every gift of his had a word written on the paper that begins with an "n" like "nice" and "new" and "noel" and then my other son's name begins with an "L" so all of his gifts had words on it that begin with letter "l".
• My kids are a lot older now so the codes need to be tougher and I have used words from songs that piece together for each person or math problems and one child is all "even" answers and the other child all "odd" answers....
• I am still working on this year's code but I will be sure to post again when I have it created and I look forward to hearing your code ideas! :-)

4) Pine Needle Pick-up:

Every year we have fun picking out a "real" tree and every year our floor is covered with pineneedles and instead of spending hours every day vaccuuming, I have a tradition of incenting my children to help pick up the pine needles. I give them a cup with their name on it and they get $.01 for every needle they pick up - oh - this is hours of keeping them entertained while I work on other projects during this busy time of year and they are happy to have $5-$10 extra to spend after the holidays.

I am blessed to be able to pass these holiday traditions on to my children that will last them a lifetime and I look forward to hearing your family hilday traditions.

Julie
aka: Happy Mom

Paying Your Teenagers Not To Drive?

Hi Parents,

I attended a fundraiser banquet recently and I met a couple sitting next to me and we started talking about our children and realized we both had 2 boys. Their boys are both teenagers, 14 & 16. They told me their children are very well behaved and at the top of their class in school, but they were still concerned about the safety of their children behind the wheel of a car. They said their 16 year old does not have his drivers license yet and they put him on an incentive plan and they pay him $100 every month that he does not drive. They know the statistics on how many children drink and drive and lose their life and they said so far their incentive program is working. Their son is motivated to take the cash and right now has no desire to learn to drive.

They also said they have a no questions asked cab fare program and they will cover any cab fares at any time encouraging their sons not to get into a car with friends that may have been drinking.

Is this taking it to far and hindering the natural growth and development of children or is this a smart parenting approach that other parents should adopt?

If you have teenagers, I would love to hear your stories about allowing your children to drive or other programs you may have in place to encourage safe teen driving.

I still have 6 years until I have to worry about this issue so I would love to hear your stories so that I can be prepared for this monumental milestone in a child's life.

Thanks,

Julie
aka: Caring Mom