Saturday Means Pancakes, Thursday Means Bakery – The Importance of Weekly Traditions

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When you think of traditions, it’s easy to think of special rituals that take place on Christmas or birthdays. And those are so important!

But what shouldn’t be overlooked is the importance of weekly rituals. Read on.

The Inception of Bakery Day

Looking at the title of this post, you’re going to start thinking every day of the week at our house is dedicated to some form of sugary carbohydrate.

Which, when you think about it, would be pretty amazing. But I assure you that for now it’s just Thursdays and Saturdays.

Bakery Day started about four years ago when Evan was in preschool. Every Tuesday, right after I picked him up, the two of us had a couple hours to spend together.

This became known as “special time,” special both because he got my undivided attention and because he got to set the agenda. Though I had to say no to things that would have taken longer than two hours, like a visit to the Children’s Museum, pretty much anything else was fair game.

Well, when there’s a bakery just down the block from preschool, you’d be one heck of a crazy 4-year-old to pass up the opportunity.

And so every Tuesday, during those lovely B.C. (before covid) times, we’d grab a table at Wuollet Bakery and enjoy our pastries while making plans for the rest of our time together.

The Bakery Day Tradition

Since then, our schedules and circumstances have of course changed several times.

The fall that Even went off to kindergarten coincided with Nate starting his first year of preschool. Well-aware of the existence of Bakery Day and the proximity of Wuollet, Nate wanted in on the action.

That first week of school, I asked Evan if he wanted Nate and me to wait for him to go to Wuollet, or if he wanted us to just pick something up for him. After all, I explained to him, we were already going to be right by the bakery, and there’d be a better selection of pastries earlier in the day.

Recalling that conversation now, I’m surprised I asked the question. Of course Evan wanted to come with us.

Weekly Traditions are Anchors

As an adult, I don’t care if I go to the bakery myself to pick out my apple fritter or if someone delivers it to me; I’m an avid errand hater and would actually prefer the latter.

But for my kids, Bakery Day, capital B, capital D, isn’t about the pastries. Okay, yes it is. But it’s not only about the pastries. I’d dare to argue that even more than the sugar rush, it’s about the tradition.

It’s an anchor in their week, something they can count on and look forward to. An anchor that becomes even more important in times of transition, like when a guy starts kindergarten.

During that 2019-2020 school year, Wednesday was Bakery Day. Same the following year. Of course there were disruptions due to covid and pregnancy-related woes, but the tradition continued in spite of them.

Respecting and Upholding the Tradition

Last spring, when I was figuring out the boys’ summer schedules, I decided it would be nice to try to include some special time, i.e. one-on-one time, with each of them.

I tell you, though, it almost didn’t happen because I realized doing so was going to require moving Bakery Day, and who DOES that?!?

But we figured it out, and Bakery Day switched to Thursday. Evan decided he actually likes Thursdays better, whereas Nate and I wanted to go back to Wednesday as soon as fall rolled around.

So now we alternate.

Traditions Merit the Effort

That’s probably more info than you need (omission of irrelevant details is not my strong suit — I promise I tried!), but my point is that traditions are worth making and worth keeping. They mean so much to our kids. The sprinkled donuts don’t hurt.

Yesterday was a bitterly cold day and the thought of going anywhere filled me with dread. I had no choice about picking up the boys from school, but asked them if we could skip Bakery Day just this once since it was so cold out.

You would have thought I’d asked Nate to skip his birthday. I quickly recanted. Bakery Day is capital B, capital D for a reason.

Does your family have a fun weekly ritual you all look forward to? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below!

And if not, start one! In the coming months, I’m going to focus a number of posts on traditions — why they’re important, different ideas, how to figure out which ones might work best for you and your family. I hope you’ll read along!