Eating together as a family is so important, but with the busyness of life, it can be hard to find the time to actually sit down and eat together. In our family, we have 3 main challenges.
- Dad’s coming home schedule is ever changing.
- Kids have activities outside of the home, 3 nights a week.
- Sometimes dad just wants to “veg” out in front of the TV after a long day of work.
- The table is always cluttered with school books and art projects.
- I don’t always plan ahead enough to feed everyone early enough before they have to leave.
Do you have some of these same excuses?
I’d love to encourage you and your family to try eating dinner together at the table at least 3-5 times a week. This may take some special tweaking and planning ahead, but believe me, it’ll be worth it. I’ll be working on this right alongside of you!
5 Suggestions for Getting Your Family to Eat Together at the Table
- Plan Your Meals Ahead – That is exactly why I’ve created Crockpot Freezer meals! So that I can plan our meals a week at a time and have them all ready at once. There are plenty of weeks though that I don’t get the prep work done. I’m far from perfect, that’s for sure! On weeks like that, I just try to plan one day at a time. Regardless, if you would like your family around the table a little more often, be sure to plan something and not fly by the seat of your pants all the time.
- Make the Conversation Entertaining – Come up with several conversation ideas that you can talk about each night while you’re eating dinner together. Make it fun, like telling stories of when mom and dad were little, when they were dating, when the kids were younger, etc. Kids love hearing the stories from their parents and from their own pasts as well. They will beg to come back to the dinner table each night if you make it interesting for them! The possibilities are endless!
- Don’t Allow Media Devices – This is one of my pet peeves. What fun is it eating together if everyone has their noses buried in a phone, computer, or other media device? Not fun at all. Make rules regarding media devices and everyone will connect so much easier!
- Have Themed Dinners – If your child is studying a certain country or other geographic area, try to incorporate your dinner around what they’re studying. You can discuss that country and their practices while at the dinner table. Once again, this does require some planning, but if you’re planning anyway….it won’t be hard to add this in.
- Invite Friends – Let your family know that if you begin making a habit of eating together, you’ll regularly invite friends over for dinner, too. My kids love having company for dinner, don’t yours? That’ll get them all excited about having the habit of eating together.
Now, I realize that dinner time is never going to be perfect. Don’t let that get you down. One setback doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel. Just pick up where you left off and get going again!
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