When we look around to the other children that are in your kids class, the people you're working with or even on television we can start to see that the modern family doesn't always look the same as it did fifty years ago. More than half of marriages end in divorce and several people choose to adopt children instead of having them on their own. You will even find that there are several families with two mothers or fathers. No matter what your family looks like, it's important that you have your own traditions that keep you together.

Traditions can be things that you pass on from generations passed or things that you create together with just your family. A perfect time to start is during the holidays. This is when most people have things that they do annually no matter where they are. You could have moved from a small condo to a single-family home and still have the same kind of tree with the same ornaments every year. Or you might have a specific dinner that you make for all of your extended family at Thanksgiving.

If you don't have many traditions that go with your holidays and you want more things that will really make it feel like a special time together than you can start all sorts of different things. Plan an event that you could all do together, from your kids to your cousins. Some families like to go hiking in the morning on Thanksgiving or play a huge game of charades at Christmas with all twenty members of their family. Others choose to go away every year for one of the long weekends in the summer.

It doesn't need to be a holiday for you to create a tradition with your family or keep one alive from years ago. If you find that you're always busy working and your kids have hectic lives than you could just set aside one dinner a week where you all cook together and eat at the table. Or you could have a games night once a month. One night you could play a game and the next you could make up your own game using adhesive name tags and a few markers.

The hardest part about creating traditions is just the act of making sure that they are done consistently. But you will find that it's worth it and will bring your family closer together.