The Art of Making Meal Time More Enjoyable
Making Meal Time More Enjoyable
Family life is busy. As a parent, you’re constantly preparing and planning and shopping for meals, and you make the same meals on rotation.
When you can manage it, though, regular family meals together with your extended family are always worth the effort.
Whether you’re doing a nightly dinner or you’re doing a special Sunday lunch and getting the whole crowd together, you can ensure it’s a time for connection and communication.
Even when you’ve got teenagers, it’s so important for older kids and older family relatives to be able to catch up and feel more connected.
So setting off a massive lunch for the entire family squared away with. An easy peach cobbler is a good way to round it off.
Your kids can learn a lot about food, eating, and manners when you plan a family lunch, so let’s take a look at how you can make meal time more enjoyable for everybody involved.
1. Ensure that you are eating at a regular time.
If you want an entire family dinner every single day, you can have one. You just have to make sure that everybody is eating together every day.
Making it a rule in your house for everybody to be sat at the table and talking with one another rather than watching screens is important.
Of course, that’s not always going to be the case if you’ve got neurodivergent family members, but where you can, it’s a nice way for everybody to feel like they can sit together.
2. Don’t rush your time.
If you allow around half an hour for a family meal, it gives your kids plenty of time to eat, and it gives everybody plenty of time to talk with one another.
It’s OK if kids need to get up and move around while they’re having their dinner, because kids aren’t always reliable enough to sit still.
As long as you’ve made it clear that their dinner is to be eaten on the table, it will be fine.
3. Don’t leave anybody out.
Involving kids in choosing and preparing family meals can help to ease the burden off of you. This is especially the case if you have older teenagers.
They are going to be one day out of your home and in the world. You want to make sure they know how to cook and to prepare meals.
They can help you with finding new recipes and cooking those meals for the family. Especially if there’s a once a week or a once a fortnight thing.
This helps to share the responsibility so you’re not alone in doing it yourself.
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4. Use it as a chance to connect.
If you want to bring other family members or friends into your meal, you can make it a chance to connect together.
You’ll be able to feel peaceful with all of your family around the table. You could even make it a potluck where everybody brings a dish.
Family dinners are supposed to be enjoyable and memorable times together, so don’t skimp on the planning.
Do you have any more tips for making meal time more enjoyable?
Let me know, til then—cheers m’deres!
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Nancy Polanco is a freelance journalist, lifestyle content creator, and editor of Whispered Inspirations. She is a proud Mom to Gabby and Michaela and partner and best friend to Darasak. Having worked as part of a health care team for almost a decade, Nancy is happy to be back to her passion. She is a contributor to the Huffington Post, TODAY’s Parents, and an Oprah Magazine Brand Ambassador.
