I would love it if you would tell me about things that you do or talk about at dinner with your kids (from toddlers to adolescents)–for examples, ways to start conversations about their day or important topics, games you might play while eating, themes for dinnertime. And your thoughts about how you think families sitting down and eating together affects the kids and family as a whole. :aq:
Re: making mealtime meaningful
Excellent topic. It seems so little and inconsequential, but everyone sitting down together at the table as a united family is so very important to the emotional health and happiness of the family.
When we were much younger and everyone wasnt scattered around due to crazy school/work schedules, we made it a point to eat together almost every night. I dont understand how some families simply microwave their food and then go to the separate corners of their rooms to eat alone. When do these people actually find time to catch up with each other and whats going on in everyone's life?
As we got older and had less time for each other, we established that weekends would be family nights and we had one themed dinner and one dinner out no matter what. No excuses tolerated.
I think its a great thing to involve kids in at least helping set the table or cut the salad or fill up the water pitcher and then assign dishwashing duties as well. It gives them some sort of responsibility. Children can learn alot about table manners from watching the elders of the family, a skill and practice that is very necessary in life.
In my house we always talked about everyone's day....the parents would ask one by one what everyone was learning in school, what the favorite subjects were at the time, what we were struggling with, how friends were, whats going on in school and the social circles... nothing too heavy obviously we would never fight at the dinner time... and the kids would ask the parents whats new with relatives and listen to anectodes of my dad and his patients or something along those lines..sorta to keep everyone in the loop.
It is important for the family to be togther at the end of a long day at school/work or even both to just sit down, enjoy a good meal, relax and unwind and connect with those who matter most. :)
I have a lot of great memories from the dinnertable and even now when the whole family finally is together, eating together is something that I mainly look forward to.
Re: making mealtime meaningful
The only meaning in our mealtimes is (sadly) making sure the boyz eat their healthy food. Eldest is a nightmare who has had severe eating difficulties. Middle son calls anything thats not a chicken nugget "snake meat". Youngest (MAshallah!) is like me and LOVES to eat. (His favorite food is steak lol).
I SO very much look forward to the day that we can sit and eat without trouble and have lovely chats about our day, about current affairs etc.