I don’t post my kids on here much these days. They don’t want their face plastered all over social media anymore and I respect that. I saw someone write a post about that the other day and I agree that sometimes we have to shift when it comes to putting our kids on social media. With that being said I took my daughter and her friend’s apple picking at a local farm on their Fall Break a few weeks ago (no pics of them just of the place we went). They lasted 10 min. they were complaining as soon as we got there about how hot it was and the bugs. I realized then that my kids are not babies anymore and although it has always been a tradition to go apple picking every fall…they have outgrown that. I want to talk about outgrowing traditions as our kids get older and how to introduce new traditions even if we (as parents) don’t like them.
The first thing to remember is that you don’t have a little baby anymore and what was cute when they were younger isn’t cute now. They are over it and will let you know quickly. It’s ok. They have their own personalities these days and you have to learn to join them and do what they want to do. It was hard giving up our tradition but I know that I have to step back and access what makes them happy not what makes me happy. And that is the key. Recognizing that outgrown traditions are signs of healthy development and we are doing a great jobs as parents because they may not want to do what we want but they still can and will involve us in their own things.
You can always modify old traditions with new ones. So we don’t like apple picking but my daughter loves to bake so guess what we baked an apple pie. It’s a little of the old tradition (without the apple picking part) mixed with something she loves and we can still do it every Fall.
Next we need to focus on spending quality time with our kids no matter if it’s not the traditions. That’s the most important part they grow fast. Spend time with them doing something they love even if you have to take your pride out of it. I hate baking but I was up in that kitchen with my daughter as she baked her apple pie.
We visited Mercier Orchads in Blue Ridge, GA which was about 2 hours from where I lived. The ride up there wasn’t bad it was the traffic where we had to sit still that was horrible. We usually go to BJ”s farm but decided to break tradition and do something new. The teens still didn’t like it but I loved it. I was able to sit under a tree and read a little while they picked apples. Overall I liked the store on this farm better than BJ’s but I liked BJ’s apple farm a bit better. I say visit both and see which one you like the most.
- There is a tractor ride to the actual farm and it gets dusty I would suggest you don’t look cute as I did and wear clothes you don’t mind getting dust on.
- to pick apples it will be $10 for each bag. The bags hold about 6 apples I would opt for a bigger bag or you can just buy some apples from the store itself
- They have everything apple. The bakery was a hit with the kids apple pie, apple ice cream, fried apples, etc.
- We went in the middle of the week on a Thursday…it was full and I was shocked I thought it would be empty.
p.s. that strawberry frozen drink was the bomb
