There was a time when meals were normally taken as a family. Then technology started to intervene. People started to eat meals in front of a TV or while playing games online. Today, many families rarely eat meals together.
This is not a good thing as eating together is beneficial to family members, especially children. As a mom, it’s a good idea for you to make sure that at least some mealtimes are shared by everyone. There are some steps that you can take to help make this happen.
Schedule family meal time so that everyone is aware
Let’s start by saying that not every meal needs to be a family one. If you hardly eat together at all then even introducing one family meal a week is a good start. The meal that you choose should be a good fit with everyone; whether this is breakfast or dinner. Once you know which meal is going to be a family one, each week, you should make sure that it’s in everyone’s schedule. You can mark it on a hard copy calendar in the kitchen of your home and you can also set up a Google calendar for all the family to use.
Get everyone involved with meal preparation
Your kids are more likely to appreciate a meal that they have been involved with preparing. Working in the kitchen in this way also helps to set them up for when they have to cook their own meals later in life. Even young children can help in the kitchen by getting food items out of cupboards ready for them to be prepared. If you want to create a togetherness while your family works on meal preparation why not order kitchen aprons online and make like you are a professional kitchen team creating a culinary masterpiece. Just remember that this is not actually about creating a perfect meal, it’s about enjoying some valuable time together as a family.
Concentrate on being together during the meal
There is little point in arranging family mealtimes if everyone does their own thing while they eat. This should be a time where everyone gets together to talk and enjoy being a family. With this in mind, here are a few rules that you should follow:
- Conversation should be light and positive. This is not the time for speaking to your children about disciplinary matters or talking to your partner about financial problems.
- The TV should be turned off. Missing a program is not the end of the world and you can always catch up later anyway.
- Smartphones should not be at the table. This applies to the phones of the adults just as much as it does to the phones of the children in your family.
- Tablets should also be kept away from the table. Almost 50% of young children now have tablets, or other mobile devices, and use them every day. This can be a good thing, in terms of what they can learn. However, they also need to take part in face-to-face human interaction, in order to flourish.
Following these steps will not turn your family into some sort of modern day Brady bunch. However, it should help to give you the time together that every family needs.
