Tell me about little, old-fashioned things you do for your kids

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

It's always so busy and zany these days. I try really hard to do small things that I hope they will look back on and remember when they are grown up.

I bake a simple cake most weekends. They eat it up really fast so it's mostly gone by about Tuesday! But they never have shop bought cake.

I read Brambly Hedge or Peter Rabbit stories in big deluxe illustrated editions with DS (8) as he still loves them.

When it's hot, I sponge their temples and the backs of their necks with a cool flannel before bed.

What are some simple, little, old school lovely things you do for your DC?

im going to copy the flowers one!

When my dd is home from uni I take her to M&S food hall and let her chuck whatever she wants in the trolley…cots me a fortune but seeing how happy it makes her, after eating on a budget at uni, makes it worth every penny!

I always kept some small books in my bag when mine were young, and if we were waiting somewhere, and they were being very good and waiting quietly, they could take them out for a look. This was in the 2010s when screens were becoming more and more ubiquitous and a lot of people would comment on how quiet and engrossed they were. At restaurants they each had a notebook and when they finished their meal, they were allowed to draw pictures while the adults finished up.

Lockdown trashed my screen restrictions and now they’re typical teens surgically attached to their phones

Another habit we’ve fallen out of is bringing a picnic lunch. It used to be very hard, not to mention expensive to find something suitable for everyone’s dietary requirements, so I used to pack up my picnic rucksack, fill a bottle with squash whenever we’d head out somewhere and we’d nearly always have poundcake to finish.

This thread is so lovely! I’m stealing some ideas.

I read to DS every night before bed, snuggled up together in my king sized bed which he loves. I look out for books I loved as a child (Frog and Toad, My Naughty Little Sister, Peace at Last etc) and he’s enjoyed them too.

He loves homemade pancakes and I make them from scratch for him every morning, even on school days if he wants them.

When he has a packed lunch I cut the sandwiches into different shapes with biscuit cutters; my dad used to do that with our toast when we were little.

We go on holiday to Croyde bay every year, my husband and I both used to go on family holidays there as children and we all love that tradition. We also buy Kellogg’s variety packs for holidays though I agree it’s not as good as it used to be, my sister and I would always fight over who got the Ricicles!

We play a lot of board games and card games and always try to bring Lego, colouring or a craft set on a long journey rather than a screen.

I always bake a cake for their birthdays, put up some banners and a special birthday teddy who sits on the table with whatever cereal they would like.

We usually go out for dinner in the 1st week after they break up for summer, as a 'we've survived!'

Always say the same thing before going to bed - a phrase that my eldest created

I'm not sure if any of them count as old fashioned, but here are some of my fave family traditions.

• after they've gone to bed the night before their birthday we decorate the house, including sneaking some bunting and things up in their rooms. Can imagine this one won't last forever but whilst they have early bedtimes and are deep sleepers I'm making the most of it!
• if the kids have a birthday party they always stand up and give a little speech/thank everyone for coming. We started when they could first talk and it's always the most adorable part of the party.
• we draw on the front door in chalk to say happy birthday and their age etc and have a photo outside it
• always measure them on their birthday and half birthday and write it up on a wall chart
• outside their door we create their new age number out of photos from the last year
• you get to choose the menu for your birthday
• I make the cake. Every year I offer them something elaborate/themed but they want a cake in the shape of their new number, covered in berries and sweets...every time!
• we hide their pressies and write a treasure hunt with clues to follow to find them. Started off with pictures but now they can both read i get creative with rhymes and riddles
• at Christmas we have a 'fill your own' advent calendar. Every day I'll put a chocolate/sweet per family member in and an activity to do. Sometimes this is an outing (like drive to see Christmas lights, or go to a nativity play), sometimes its have a Christmas music disco in the kitchen, wear a Christmas jumper, read a festive story, bake cookies, wrap presents, write cards etc.
• the Grinch visits at least one day and steals the chocolate/note with the activity and leaves a treasure hunt instead to follow, ultimately with more goodies to find along the way
• on the first ever day of school you get a cone filled with useful and yummy things
• the family (grandparents etc) come over and we all walk to school together
• in the darker months we have a firepit tea around once a month, cook sausages on sticks and have marshmallows. Tends to be an open invite so have a gaggle of kids from school around which is nice
• we have fairies in our house who play all sorts of tricks. One time I made up some bowls of fruit and yogurt and somehow between the children watching me dish up in the kitchen and the bowls making their way to the dining table the yogurt turned into vanilla ice cream. Am pretty good at a switcheroo 😉
• always wrap their PJ's in a hot water bottle in the winter or have them on the radiator so they're snug to put on like my nan used to do for me
• we hand make end of year gifts for teachers, so learning how to sew, embroider, needle felt etc. Also always get them to draw their own cards. Not sure they love that but I do 🤣
• At the end of term I send a book into school for their teachers to write a little note in, same with sports coaches etc. So by the time they're grown they'll have a page of motivational words/compliments per year of their life from all the people who helped them along the way.
• Likewise I have a book of you i fill in on their birthday each year
• Used to do a little one second a day video each year but I've fallen a bit behind. Would like to get back into it as they're lovely to revisit!

Before this thread I didn't think of us all snuggling in my bed for stories nearly every night as a tradition, but I can see how that would be a lovely memory. We're currently working our way through the Little House series and I'm loving it.

Love the flower idea ❤️ looking forward to doing that one! Thanks for sharing this lovely thread xx

Lovely! Our adult sons were here at the weekend and regaling their girlfriends with tales of their childhoods. Nothing in particular, but my son said at one point ‘my childhood was completely perfect’ and both me and his dad nearly cried. That’s all you want to hear. 🥹

@WeNeedaDiagram oh ❤️❤️❤️❤️

We have a river near us, playing pooh sticks on the bridge as a family is a huge favourite!

inbought hand made birthday bunting that says happy birthday and my eldest daughters name. When we had our second, I contacted the seller & she was able to make her name in the same fabric! Hoping they’ll see it as a core memory as we will use it every year!

I don’t have any DCs, but one thing I especially remember from childhood is being blindfolded and sat in a chair in the garden. The chair was lifted, and I was told I was flying, with tiny scenery below me described. We played other blindfold imagination games as well, such as being told I’m in the jungle, and being given things to feel.

@scalt was that magical? The idea of being blindfolded and lifted in the air sounds quite scary now but as a kid I bet that was super 🥰

Can you be my parent please? 🥹

This is cute I love it but how is watching Netflix in bed old fashioned? Ditto baking cake.

We listen to the radio a lot rather than having the tv on. My DH is a huge music fan so the DC hear all sorts. Hearing my then 5 year old ask me if I liked Beck cracked me up!

We also play vinyls and take them into record shops and let them browse and pick their own ones.

We play a lot of cards, board games and paper games like hangman, or that ones where you make squares out of dots (no idea its name!). We never have screens out of the house so these games get played waiting for dinner etc.

I’ve taught them paper crafts like lanterns, paper chains and the paper chain people and we make a load at the beginning of December to decorate the house.

I enjoy cross stitch and sewing so if they ask to have a go I let them join in with their own bit of Aida or fabric. Invariably they do 3 stitches and get bored but I keep trying!

When DD1 was three, she was admitted to hospital with a chest infection. She was a bit panicky with the nebuliser, and one of the things that helped was DH singing to her.

We've done a song for each of our kids every bedtime ever since. DH tends to do the "reindeers are better than people" song from Frozen, with the subject changed to whatever the kids are talking about at the time, which is frequently very funny. I do nursery rhymes, including some historical epics that I leaned from an ancient cassette tape when I was a child (look up "Brave Benbow", that's a favourite).

We've been doing this for nine years now, and I hope a bedtime song is something they remember fondly when they're grown-ups.

We don't do enough reading all these lovely posts. We do baking quite a bit. I make my own bread , cakes etc and there is always something In the cake stand. After nursery we tend to spend time in the garden playing with a football or frisbee. We generally have homemade pancakes , he stands on his little chair at the kitchen work top and eats them fresh from the pan where he can add all his extras. The obvious book before bed etc

I always made home made birthday cakes, in the shape of butterflies, treasure chests, dinosaur excavations, make up bags. I loved doing it. They looked pretty good but definitely home made, and tasted delicious. They loved coming down on their birthday to see what cake they had.

Neither teen DD eats cake now... They don't like it, but not just mine, all cake!

I used to read to them every night, but in the holidays I'd make up stories about two little girls like them, but who lived somewhere different. They'd have to close their eyes and imagine it all. They still talk about the characters I made up.
My grandma used to sing me nursery rhymes and tell me stories in the same way to get me to nap as a small child which is one of my earliest memories.

We still go camping every year, which they love, and it's a very pared down existence (no electric hook up). That's when we tend to play games - teen life is full of distractions but that's one time we still get together.

I love the idea of flowers in their rooms, but I'm not sure if make it across their floors!

Weird one. When we buy new shoes we bight them. An old Indian tradition- bite the shoe before it bites you.

This is the same for me! I still feel it! And I'm 50!! We also have advent calendars with pictures, my kids are teenagers now but they still love them. They can get chocolate ones when they leave home!

Yhe my mum still does me an advent calendar now when we spend Christmas with her. In December my kids will tell me off if I do something “naughty” and tell me the elves will know and they’ll not bring me a present in my advent calendar at nanas house 😭.

Colouring in

DH and I still read a bedtime story to our 12 year old.

Spend usually one day a week outdoors, climbing trees, digging holes, looking for bugs and making dens. No agenda. Just chatting and being with nature (we live in a city so have to go find forests!)

Summer holidays are fully screen and device free.

Indeed, it’s magical. I really believed I was high up: because they took extra care that I couldn’t see a thing, I didn’t know that I was actually only a few inches above the ground.