Kids love having family traditions but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that a lot of traditions are a real pain for the parents (especially the mom). Being pragmatic like I am, I try to keep my job uncomplicated but I don’t want to suck the joy out of my kids’ lives. Thus we have several easy, fun traditions that the kids completely love. Crazy Cereal week is one of their favorites and is pretty much the easiest tradition we have. We’ve been doing this for several years and they all still adore it (even India, who was too lazy to get out of her bed, hollered from her room that she wanted Lucky Charms.)
On the first Monday after school gets out for the summer* we go to the grocery store and the kids are allowed to pick out any cereal they like. I’m pretty strict about eating low-sugar cereals the rest of the year so this is the one time I say OK to Honey Frosted Sugar Bombs. Each child gets his/her own box and can either horde it or share (This year I made an exception for York because he is man-sized and wanted Oh’s which come in a tiny box. So I let him get two.) Once the cereal is gone, that’s it–the party is over. If they are little piggies they’ll eat it twice a day, but the smart kids make it last a long time. Either way, they get to eat something fun and different and I’m off the hook for breakfast for a few days. That, my friends, is a fantastic tradition.
*The other nice thing about this tradition is that it can be done any time of year. We just picked the first week after school gets out because everyone is usually around.
We have something similar. On their birthday the kids get whatever crazy cereal they want. I might have to add this to our tradition list. It is really easy and that is my kind of tradition.
Love that tradition. I am probably going to steal it. Years ago I started making birthday signs for the birthday kid, so they would wake up and feel special. Now many years and 6 kids later, I grumble every single time I am up at midnight making paper birthday signs for the birthday kid.
I have a friend who does birthday signs and I thought it was such a cute idea when she first started. But now I am SOOO glad I never jumped on that bandwagon. What a pain! Can you just save them and use them year after year?
Ah, low-effort, low-cost traditions! My favorite!
@annie, tell me about it! Those handmade Easter baskets when my oldest were 5 and 3 were a very bad idea, indeed.
That was called “yucky cereal” as a child. If I wanted a box of Trix, I had to buy it myself and hide it in my room so it wouldn’t be devoured that same day by other family members!
What a fun tradition! I will have to remember this one.
New reader, by the way. I have never read a blog and LOL’ed for reals. I love your writing style. 🙂
Sarah, welcome to the blog! We called the cereal “Yucky Charms” growing up. Although if we’d known how good it was we never, ever would have.
In my family growing up we got to choose a junk cereal as part of our birthday celebration. I haven’t continued that tradition with my kids–but Dean will buy junk cereal if it’s on sale, so I figure my kids get a chance. But they would still love to pick their own. Maybe I’ll try this.
I was just reading a few posts back about lipstick, and when you got to the part about how nobody doesn’t decorate their house, I thought, well, maybe I can’t wear lipstick then. Because I don’t decorate my house. At all. That’s a long story. (Which I will now tell: I don’t want to put anything on the walls before I paint, can’t paint until we get cracks repaired, might as well replace the light fixtures first if we’re going to have sheetrock repaired, and I don’t know what kind of light fixtures I want. Also I still have a kid who naps and hate the idea of having workmen wake her up. There’s the story in a nutshell of my living in an undecorated home for 9 years. And I’d probably have some other explanation if not this one, because I’m also just indecisive about decor.) Anyway, so I guess I also can’t do makeup. (But I do wear lipstick, actually. I’m just probably not doing it right.)
Zina, baby steps! Maybe start with one picture in the wall. The light fixture and cracks can e dealt with later. And any lipstick is better than no lipstick at all. Well, maybe not any lipstick. But at least you try!
Man, I must be a BAD PARENT… **sigh** my kids eat cereal most days of the week because they have to catch the bus VERY early and I have 3 kids who can’t get their booties in gear! Although the other 2 don’t have a problem… They think it’s a wonderful think when I make eggs and toast or bacon or oatmeal… or SOMETHING other than cereal! LOL Again, bad mommy here… 😉 But I’m tired 99.99% of the time and my kids know it, so whatever, we live and learn.
I didn’t even know this was a family tradition of yours until I was at your house on Sunday, and you announced that tomorrow was Crazy Cereal Day. The volume of cheers throughout your house was convincing!
This is the perfect tradition. Easy, relatively cheap, novel and everyone is taken care of in the breakfast department for a week. Genius.
Thanks for the idea! My kids loved it. We never buy Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops…it’s a true thrill for them! 🙂
It’s the simple things that make life great!
I am a sucky parent. Because my kids eat crap cereal every day. NOT my idea. But I have fought this fight with my husband enough times to realize that if he is going to eat crap crereal (and he is. . I can’t change that about him), my kids are too. I try to sneak in some good ones like Kix and Cherrios and Special K, but they just can’t compete with Reese’s Puffs (GAG!) and Honey Smacks.
I WISH!!! we had a crazy cereal day!
p.s. My kids would rather eat cereal than pancakes, eggs, biscuits, omlettes, crepes or any other homemade food. So as much as I try to make them a nice breakfast, crap cereal always wins. 🙁
how s-weet!