Our Blended Family Tradition: “Whatever Wednesday”
This post contains an affiliate link. If you click on this link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.
When I married my husband 17 years ago, I brought with me three sons from my previous marriage. My husband also had three children from his first marriage- 2 girls and a boy. Those first few months as a blended family were challenging, to say the least. We were all adapting to a completely new way of life…different parenting styles, different rules, picky eaters, and a whole lot of different personalities! I remember describing our family as “the Brady Bunch gone bad”! We adapted, though, and soon began to form a routine. It was still chaotic, but it worked. Two years later, one more was added to our brood when our youngest son was born. He now refers to himself as “the only one that is blood related to everyone else in the family”. I guess he is actually right.
With 7 kids in the family, meal planning became essential. I can’t count how many times I’ve used the phrase “you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit”…said with a tone that made the word “get” sound like “git”.
Gosh, I’m using a lot of quotation marks. Probably improperly, too. Oh well, who cares? 🙂
Weekly meal planning made things a bit easier. Each week I would sit down and write out a menu. I would then plan my grocery list around this menu. I’ll tell you right now, by doing this I saved a ton of money. I made a menu board out of one of those big multi picture frame
At the beginning of the week, I wrote each evening menu. This way the kids knew what we would be having each night, so they could properly prepare their corresponding fit! 🙂 🙂
BUT THERE WAS ONE DAY OF THE WEEK THAT THERE WERE NO FITS THROWN…AND THAT DAY WAS WEDNESDAY!!
Why? Because Wednesday was “Whatever Wednesday”! Mom does not cook on Wednesday. You can eat WHATEVER you want (within reason). Cereal? Sure! Ice Cream? Yep. Cake? Why not? Popcorn? Okay!
The kids LOVED “Whatever Wednesday” because it was a free day. In a mixed up chaotic blended family with too many rules and routines, it was a free day. The parents loved it as well, for the same reason. No fits. No whining. Smiling faces! It worked (for us, anyway)!
Even though all of the kids are grown except the youngest (and he’s fifteen), I still try to do the weekly menu board and from time to time, I still do “Whatever Wednesday”. Heck, it’s Wednesday! Guess what I’ll be eating tonight? 🙂
