As I look towards the next holiday, Easter, I am already planning my son’s first Easter basket, what will go into it, what outfit he will wear, and having an egg hunt.   Davey will be merely 6 months old this Easter, much too young to really understand and appreciate the efforts I’m putting forth to maintain some level of fun and tradition for him.   So, I can’t help but wonder, who’s really benefitting from tradition right now?

I bought Davey his first Halloween costume before he was born.   He was exactly one month and 3 days old when Halloween arrived.   I dressed him up in his cute little bat bunting costume while he screamed the entire time.  My parents came over for dinner so they could see him all decked out.  Then we took him around to a few houses in the neighborhood, mostly to show him off (I guess some people would call that exploiting my child) and to snag some candy for me and my husband.   Davey had no clue what was going on, but he knew enough to know he was miserable.   So, what was the point?

Thanksgiving, we were at my parent’s house for a family dinner.   Davey slept most of the time, as he was a young 2 months of age.   And of course, the day after Thanksgiving, my husband and I went shopping and took Davey with us.   Yet again, another tradition that we stuck to for the “sake of Davey”.

Christmas, Davey was just 3 days shy of 3 months, but we stuck with family tradition again for him.   My parents spent the night with us so that they could be here when he woke up.   He received countless presents from Santa, but was completely oblivious to them.   He didn’t understand, nor did he care.   He just wanted to be held, to eat, and to sleep.   We kept the tradition anyways.

Day after day, holiday after holiday, I’m eager to include my son in on age-old traditions, to ones that my family started, to new ones that my husband and I are creating.   I want Davey to be active.  I want him to be happy.  I want him to be sociable and I’m anxious to have him look back on his life and be grateful for his life and family, but am I doing too much too fast?   Am I just using the fact that I have a child to create adventures in the name of “tradition” in order to fill the holes in my childhood. ***disclaimer:  I had an awesome childhood, but there are things that I wish my parents did with me***

At what point does my need for family tradition become a bit too much for my son?   Is it possible that I may negatively impact him?