50 People Share The Bizarre Things Their Families Did That They Thought Were Completely Normal At The Time

Samantha, who runs the 'Walking Outside in Slippers' parenting blog, shared some of the best traditions that run in her family. "For my husband, cooking is a way to show love. So he cooks delicious tacos, chicken bowl, and barbecue. His mom is also a great cook. So family meals are something we try to share as a family as much as we can."

Food is often a very important aspect of family traditions, as we've covered on Bored Panda recently. However, there are many other activities and items that you can build traditions around. For example, Samantha shared that, in her family, they have a special Christmas quilt that they all sit under on Christmas Eve, while her dad reads 'The Night Before Christmas.'

"These are fun traditions we all love, including my kids. And hopefully, these are traditions they will want to pass along to their kids. Making traditions fun and memorable, and telling a story about why they matter, will help keep them going, I believe."

However, for some new parents, it can be a daunting task to create traditions that will stick, from scratch. Especially if they might not have had any passed down to them while they were growing up. Blogger Samantha explained that you don't have to overthink these things too much. Focus on having fun and togetherness. That's what's going to endure.

"Almost anything fun you do in your household could be made into a tradition. We love to have karaoke nights in our living room. There's a tradition! No one said traditions have to be stuffy or boring. In fact, the more enjoyable the tradition, the more likely they will remind our kids of special times growing up that they'll want to carry forward to their kids and grandkids."

No matter how objectively or subjectively peculiar some of the things that families do might seem from an outsider's perspective, traditions in and of themselves are incredibly important.

Their role is to give family members a sense of who they are growing up, how they relate to their loved ones, and what their place is in society. They’re what gives structure to the time that we spend with our nearest and dearest. What’s more, they act as an excuse to get together after everyone’s moved.

Family traditions don’t necessarily have to be something fancy or even all that strange. For example, something as ‘simple’ as eating dinner together every Sunday night can be a wonderful way to stay in touch, even if everyone’s going about their business throughout the week.

On the flip side, there’s nothing wrong with bizarre traditions either. So long as nobody gets hurt or embarrassed, that is. The entire point of a tradition is to unite a group of people by doing an activity together. The activity itself is not important. Though odds are that if you have any guests over, they might find it extremely odd if you pass out a box of vitamins after a meal or set up the camera every Easter to catch the Easter Bunny in action.

We tend to ignore the things that have become routine to us. And it’s only when we slow down, take a step back, and try to view things from an outsider’s perspective that we might come to realize how funny and weird our actions are. Though, arguably, pretty much every family has strange habits: if you’d put any household under the microscope, you might be surprised by just how many abnormal behaviors you’d find. Ironically, bizarre things seem to be the norm!

At the same time, it's vital to remember that you're also an individual, not just part of your family. What this means is that you have your unique goals and aspirations. You also need privacy and time to spend on your hobbies, not just in the company of your relatives. It's important that you (gently) establish these boundaries if you feel that you're never allowed to do things by yourself or 'your way.'

Nobody's a mind-reader, so you need to communicate with your family if something that they do irritates you. Similarly, try not to get overly defensive if they reach out to you about something that you're doing that annoys them.

There's no real alternative for having an open and honest chat! After growing up and leaving home, you might find that you keep certain habits and traditions while coming up with completely new ones, as you start building your own family. Traditions that might be just as weird (if not more so!) than what you saw back home.