Rituals

I was at a meeting with our assistant superintendent and she was sharing the information she brought back from a recent conference.

The keynote speaker was an expert on the healthy benefit and impact of family rituals in our lives and how the steady decline over the last 25 but especially the last 10 years is strikingly correlated to the increase in identified behavior struggles and mental health issues in children.

She said that while Covid certainly disrupted things, that two of the biggest factors are social media and device usage and the increase in travel sports and extracurricular activities for children.  

Quick to defend the benefits of sports, music, camps and fun, she said the research presented was clear.  

Kids suffer when families don’t have consistent rituals that are theirs as a family and not just an extended cluster of society.

So what are those benefits? Decreased anxiety, more resilience, less need for medication (pretty sure my family misses out on that one), a greater sense of purpose and more security in their identity.  

In a world of uncertainty it gives them things they can count on and find comfort in.

So what are these rituals that have proven effective? Family meals together. Sunday night phone calls with Grandma.  Bedtime routines.  Family trips to a favorite destination.  Movie nights together piled on the couch sharing a bowl of popcorn.  Walks in the park.  Family work days.  Hugs and silly songs together.  Holiday traditions. 

For those in our faith that includes scripture study, family prayer, Sunday worship services, temple trips and Family Home Evening. 

Doctor Becky Bailey says rituals should have elements of fun, unity, positive touch and connection.

And another study I read recently found that consistent practice of family rituals were also among the best predictors of children continuing to practice their parents’ religious beliefs.  

 Elder Marion D Hanks, speaking 50 years ago shared, “It is our individual responsibility, parent or child or parent-to-be, to make decisions that will improve upon the quality of our homes and our relationships within them, and each of us should be anxious and honest in his efforts to do that—each of us.  It has been written: "As are families, so is society. If well ordered, well instructed, and well governed, they are the springs from which go forth the streams of national greatness and prosperity—of civil order and public happiness." (Thayer.)”

Powerful things to think about!