Creating memories with your children is one of the best ways to tie heart strings. This works not only with parents and children but also children with each other. I’ve told my children that their brothers and sisters will be their best friends. They are the ones who will know them through out their whole lives. They can depend on each other and share their history together.
I love hearing my children reminisce about things they’ve done together, adventures they’ve had, Â games they played and vacations memories. Â Creating memories with your children is both spontaneous and planned. You have to look for both.
Plan
Make a plan for family times. We have family dinners with conversation starters each night. We’ve had family vacations.  Theme dinners. large family dinners and birthday parties.  Game nights and pizza and movie nights. We celebrate accomplishments  and share each others burdens. We have a hat party coming up/ I found a package of hats last time I shopped at T J Max. It has 6 different hats in it so we’ll have a fun party night coming up. Not sure when yet but a night when we need to celebrate or cheer someone up, I’ll bring out the hats. I also try and keep a supply of paper products and simple foods on hand when needed in a hurry.
Spontaneous
This is when the memories occur. I make these wonderful plans and then life happens. One of the children’s favorite camping trips was in June and it was in the 30’s at night. And most of them had the stomach flu. By the end of that trip they each had Indian names; Running Barf, Step in Barf and along that line. They have wonderful memories that didn’t go along as planned.
Yesterday 2 of my children stopped by, then another one called. Oh, if they are there today I’ll come over too. And so on. 4 children, 2 grandchildren and my mom were over and we did end up with pizza because I wasn’t prepared. My house was messy. But we still had fun.
When things don’t go as planned, how do you handle it?
Do you look for the fun? If you do, chances are your children do too. If you’re stressed they will follow your lead for that too..
Point out the things out of the ordinary. You can pass the things by that become a fond memory by calling attention to it. Even if it’s not funny now, it will be later.
Slow Down
Life speeds by fast. My favorite line from the movie YOUR, MINE AND OURS  “The days are long but the weeks speed by.” My tendency was to continually tell my children to hurry up. What I had to learn as time seemed to speed up was  to slow down. Slow down,  deliberately, appreciate life, stop, watch and enjoy. It’s hard to appreciate the little nuances at fast forward.  My children grow up faster and faster.  My youngest granddaughter turned 2 months yesterday and my daughter couldn’t believe how fast it’s gone. I remember having 5 children 6 and under and feeling like diapers and toddlers would never end. I’d never get a fell nights sleep but it does. Live in the moment. Enjoy your children now.
Create Memories
Look for opportunities to create memories for your children. I know it seems like extra work. I know you’re already tired. But it’s worth it.  It doesn’t have to be fancy. I have a wonderful picture that always give some of my children the giggles. It’s a picture of my mom with a paper Transformer mask on, upside down. We have other pictures but that’s their favorite. They wanted to watch the new Transformer movie when it came out on Netflix. When I got the movie I also saw at the store Transformer masks, paper plates and napkins. That can make a party!
It doesn’t have to be big and spectacular. Celebrations can be made in any part of life. What do you do to create memories with your children?
Christina Renee
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[…] clean, I know that getting my heart ready is so much more important that getting my house ready. Making memories is so much more important than “perfect”. Giving yourself grace to not be perfect and […]