Why family traditions are SO important
Many of us have family traditions and don’t even know it! They are simply something you do with your family on a regular basis whether it’s an extravagant Easter egg hunt at your house every year or having a movie night with the extended family every couple months. There are so many good reasons to introduce (or maintain) family traditions. For example, they give us a sense of belonging, create happy memories that last a lifetime, give everyone in the family something to look forward too and most importantly, help create and strengthen family bonds.
It’s never too late to start a family tradition and they don’t have to be time-consuming, expensive or complex – it can be something very simple. Over60 community member, Wanda White, 62, from Ballina, NSW, shares her wacky family tradition that started 40 years ago and now spans three generations.
“When it’s a family member’s upcoming birthday, we always make up a story of why that particular day has been cancelled that year. We have had some wild and wacky stories,” she says. “Of course, it’s all in good fun.”
The tradition started when Wanda got married 40 years ago in 1974. “I made up the first story on my husband’s birthday and it has continued with our children, and now they continue it with their children, as well as to us their parents,” she says.
Everything from giant storms, astronomic events, problems with worldwide clocks, governmental blunders, computer malfunctions have been used. The stories have become increasingly outrageous as family members try to outdo each other.
Some of the hilarious stories Wanda told us have included, “the earth has been spinning too fast and a day was needed to be done away with to even things out, there was an extra-long eclipse of the sun so it stayed night time for an extra 24 hours and we slept through a whole extra day, so instead of it being Monday, it's now actually Tuesday and the Government has decided to cancel that day because they need extra money and making the year one day shorter will save them a fortune, and it just happens to be their birth date that has been cancelled.”
Reflecting back on her own long family tradition, Wanda tells Over60 why family traditions are so important not only for her but the whole family.
“Family traditions are so important because they keep a family connected. In these days of busy lifestyles and not much free time, to have a connection, whatever it may be, ensures that for even a short while we are all thinking alike and thinking of each other, lovingly,” she says.
Wanda advises all Over60 members to keep your family traditions going (or start one now!) because the result has been a wonderful and positive influence on the whole family.
“In the case of my weird family tradition, it has strengthened us in the way we all think up ways to make each other laugh at each other's birthday time. Laughter is the best medicine after all. That we each take turns in making another laugh is something we look forward too and cherish.
“It doesn't matter really what the tradition is. It is wonderful to see these traditions passed on from generation to generation - that my grandchildren are now using their imaginations to keep up our tradition keeps us close and loving as a family.”