Sitting down to a dinner with the entire family is a great way to stay connected with your children (and also a way for siblings to keep in touch with each other). There are a few strategies that I follow with my three children to keep things fun and stress free:
Stop the short order cook syndrome. It might have been easy to acquiesce to a picky eater with one child, but once they get older or you add more kids to the mix, you are setting yourself up for many an evening spent on too much preparing and not enough enjoying dinner. Make one dinner (maybe allow for slight variations like a red and a white sauce served with the pasta) and serve it all at once to all family members. Everyone may not like everything, but they can just eat more of a different course to fill up.
Keep it positive. We used to do the ‘Best/Worst’ game where we all said the best and worst parts of our day, but I found that we spend a lot of time complaining and not focusing on the positive. Who wants to sit around the dinner table and listen to how awful everyone’s day was? Not me.
Get some conversation starters. There are many different variations like cards or books, but the premise is to ask an interesting question which will get conversation flowing. We have a variety of these in our house and our daughters love them, we actually end up at the table long after dinner ends once we bring them out. There are a variety of question you can find online as well just by searching for ‘Family Conversation Starters’. There is a great document here.If it is entirely impossible to eat dinner as a family due to activities/work/school functions, then gather everyone to eat breakfast together.
It is proven that children who eat together as a family eat healthier, are less likely to be overweight, less likely to use drugs and alcohol and do better in school. It is just a great habit to start now that will keep your family close and create memories to last a lifetime.
Family dinner is so important – I think it is easy to get crazy with our schedules but I try to make sure we sit down most nights of the week as a family. Great piece – and great tips!
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I also believe that family meals are incredibly important. Schedules can get tricky but if you plan ahead then you can always have time for a nutritious family meal. I work opposite schedules on most nights so we plan for a big,healthy family breakfast instead! It makes a great start to our day!
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As not only a mom, but also a family therapist, I absolutely agree with this post! Even though my kids are still very young, we aim to sit down together for dinner every night. Even when my oldest was around 1, I’d sit and talk with him during lunchtime as well. We’d look out the window and talk about the weather or what we saw outside. That’s an easy way to start a conversation with a kid, too.
There needs to be more emphasis on family these days, so you bet I’ll be writing more about that!
Great article!
Tamara
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