Family meals are my passion! They should be a respite from our busy days, a time for families to connect, a time for nutritious meals, AND a time to share family stories and have fun. Family meals are a time to “socialize” our children by teaching them to take turns talking, be good listeners, ask open-ended questions so others can tell about their lives and feelings, set the table, and develop all the etiquette surrounding table manners. Extensive research supports the importance of family meals on children’s social and emotional development.
My commitment to family meals has encouraged me to explore resources available for families to enhance their family mealtime. Even if you think of your mealtimes as being tense due to the topics brought up, you can change that to help make mealtimes more enjoyable. One way is to use open-ended questions (ones that require an explanation rather than a “yes” or “no” answer). There are many helpful resources available to you through the internet. The following are two resources I found that might give you some ideas and inspiration for making mealtimes fun for everyone.
The Family Dinner Project has information to help guide you through mealtimes. The Project has published a book, “Eat, Laugh, Talk!,” called The Family Dinner Playbook. It contains many simple recipes for busy families and divides these recipes into categories, “They’re Too Picky,” “We’re Too Busy,” “It’s Too Much Work,” “We’re Too Distracted,” “We’re Too Tense,” and “There’s Too Big a Crowd.” Can you identify with any of those? The really fun and helpful part of this book is that there are many suggestions for games and table conversation that encourage using critical thinking skills and developing values.
Another resource for questions at the dinner table that creates thoughtful answers is cards called Base Camp. Each card has a question on it. One question that recently had my family in gales of laughter was, “What is the story behind one of your scars?” My husband shared a story about an explosion he caused during a chemistry experiment in his mother’s green-house when he was 9 or 10. It made a mess, cut him, and he got into trouble! The grandchildren, being about the same age, thought that his story was hilarious but also understood the potential for harm that experimenting like that could cause. Some of the questions in the cards might not be as appropriate for younger children, but because there is only one question per card, you can easily pick out the questions that would fit your family.
These two resources are just starting points for you. I am sure that there are other really good resources you can find to make your mealtimes both nutritious and fun for everyone. Good luck, happy eating, and HAVE FUN!!!
