OUR STORY
Two friends, six kids, and a lot of mum guilt
We're Stef and Alexis. We've been friends a long time.
Six kids between us, all somewhere between ten and twenty-three,
which means we’ve seen pretty much every stage of it.
We both worked straight through our kids' childhoods
We both had successful corporate jobs that looked great from the outside, and we both had mum guilt about it. Doesn't everyone?
Stef felt bad for prioritising work and shutting the door on her kids when they came home from school because she was in a meeting. Then another meeting. Then another.
Alexis was climbing the corporate ladder and raising the kids, often alone, whilst her husband pursued his dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. When he got the gold, it was amazing, but it had also come closer than either of them liked to costing them the family underneath it.
We loved our jobs, which somehow made it worse. There was nothing to run from. Just a growing sense we were missing the bit that mattered.
Then Stef read a post about pancakes
A woman wrote about her mum taking her and her friend out at midnight for pancakes at Denny's. Her mum had since passed away, and this was the memory that stuck, Not how much her mum worked and how successful she was, not a holiday, not an achievement, just pancakes at midnight.
Stef wanted that for her own kids.
Why we started
You get about eighteen summers
Ours are already more than half gone. That's the whole reason this exists.
SO WE BOTH MADE A MOVE
We went looking for an answer
STEF
I moved us to an island
Three years ago I moved my family to an off-grid island. No traffic, no malls, no movies, no rushing. Nothing. The kids roam. Everything slows down here, which was the point. And still...
ALEXIS
We built a family vision
After the Olympic medal, we realised we were putting a lot of energy into helping others succeed, so we decided to do that for our kids and wrote a family vision — three pillars, with real goals under each, so our decisions became more intentional to create the family we wanted. And still...
And still...
neither of those was
the thing.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Turns out we didn't need to change much
The island didn't do it. The Olympics didn't do it. What changed things was much smaller.
EVERY NIGHT
Rose, Thorn, Bud
Five minutes at bedtime, going round the room. Best bit of your day, worst bit, one thing you're looking forward to.
We've done it since the kids were little. Still the best five minutes of the day.
EVERY SUNDAY
Screen-Free Sunday
One day a week, phones in a basket, out into the real world together.
EVERY BIRTHDAY
The same questions
The same set of questions on every birthday. Written down. Kept.
Boring in year one. Extraordinary by year ten.
You just have to do a few small things, on purpose, over and over. That's what makes a family feel like your family.
WHAT WE WANT
We want our kids to remember
how fun their childhood was
We want them to say when they're older "sheesh
we had a fun family", "our parents made our childhood magical".
That's it. That's the whole reason for this.
You don't need a hundred.
You need one that sticks. Then another one.
Stef & Alexis
EVERYONE'S TRADITIONS
The best ones didn't come from us
Rose, Thorn, Bud isn't ours. Neither are the pancakes at midnight. We found them, read them somewhere, tried them and they stuck.
So if your family does something - even something small, even something a bit weird or stupid - send it to us. We'll write it up and add it to the collection, credited to your family or anonymously if you'd rather.
That's the whole point of a hundred of them. Not our hundred. Everyone's.
Share your tradition
By sharing you're happy for us to feature your tradition (credited, or anonymous if you prefer). We'll never share your email.
Where to start
Pick one and try it this week
01
Take one tonight
02
Get the next one first
We publish a new one every week on the way to a hundred. Join the list and each one lands in your inbox, plus ten of our best to start you off. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
A new tradition every week, on the way to a hundred
Plus ten of our best to start you off
100 Family Traditions
A childhood worth remembering.
A free library of family traditions worth stealing. Built in the open, one a week.
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