All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
Ronald Reagan
If there is one great advice I can give to new moms or parents of toddlers (which I also succeeded in đ is to start from the beginning and make it a habit: have fun family meal every day!
Once it is a habit for everyone, it is easy to continue when the kids grow up as they become teenagers and tend to go to their rooms or get out with friends.
Our days are so full, both of parents and children. Having this one moment during the day where we get all together, sitting down, talking, looking at each other, sharing moments and feelings is incredible.
So why having family meal every day?
- Family bonding: we connect, talk, share, listen
- Healthier meals: we âcontrolâ better what we offer to them, suggest vegetables, and make sure our brain is focused on the meal, and not in front of TV, mobile phone or doing something else
- Great opportunity to play games together
Did you know?
- statistics show that nearly one in five children aged 6-19 in the U.S. are overweight. That puts them at higher risk for many health problems later in life, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes– as well as emotional problems.
“One of the simplest and most effective ways for parents to be engaged in their teens’ lives is by having frequent family dinners,” says Joseph Califano Jr., chairman and president of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA).
- CASA recently reported on a national phone survey of 1,000 teens and 829 parents of teens. Eating dinner as a family helped kids in many ways. It helped them get better grades, and kept them away from cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana, and more.
- Great statistics on family diner can be read here:Â
Benefits of family meals
- Better academic performance
- Higher self-esteem
- Greater sense of resilience
- Lower risk of substance abuse
- Lower risk of teen pregnancy
- Lower risk of depression
- Lower likelihood of developing eating disorders
- Lower rates of obesity
Sources:
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/family-dinners-are-important
https://thefamilydinnerproject.org/about-us/benefits-of-family-dinners/
M0re than 10 games How to make FUN family meals?
- For picky toddlers, organize a nice plate with lots of vegetables cut and play the game of colors: have each child pick vegetables from 3 different colors of his/her choice. Then ask each to try a 4th color. The way to pick the 4th color is by rolling a dice (decide before if 1-purple, 2-red, 3-greenâŚ). You can start with 2 colors first if this is hard
- For children who never stop talking and need attention during the whole meal, teach them the silent game where they learn to stay quiet and allow the meal without so much talking. The goal is to be as long as you can quiet. The one who stays quiet the longest wins.
- For children who have a hard time to share what happened today, you can play the âshare itâ game where every member, including mom and dad has to share one thing good that had happened and one thing less nice.
- For children who need attention and feel âtransparentâ, or if one had a tough day, I recommend to play the game of âspecial plateâ, meaning you place a special plate or cup to him or to her that meal and during the meal all family members give him/her positive appreciation, encouragementâŚ(âyou have been great today withâŚ.â Or âI am proud of you on âŚâ). The plate or cup or special spoon moves the day after to another child.
- For 3- 7 years old, the âyes or noâ game is always a winner!
- For 5-10 years old, we love the âI invite to the partyâŚâ game where: you set a rule that others need to guess and you give one example. An example is âI invite to my party grandpaâ (my rule is men of the family only for example). The children will ask âdo you invite daddy?â I will answer âyesâ. They will ask âdo you invite grandma?â and I will answer ânoâ and step by step with more questions and answers they will guess the rule I set. Then another player will play and set a new rule other need to guess. Rules can be as crazy as you can imagine âall names starting with letter ârâ or all things you can see on the table, or all people younger than 10 years old or all things I can take to the beachâŚ.)
- For 6-12 years old, we love the âlawyerâ game where: each member is the âlawyerâ of the person on his left. So if I ask a question to one child, the one on his right should answer for him. If he answers instead of his lawyer, he is out.
- Cooking with kids. This is lots of fun and they love it!! they can choose the task.
- Â Toys I recommend:
Competition Kitchen Card Game  for Age 10+
In addition to those selected products, i highly recommend you to read about  âTop 10 Funny Family Board Games to add Humor & Laugh at Homeâ
I hope you found this article interesting, and that it will help you for your next purchase!
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Wow! I didn’t know the benefits of family meals were that great! My child has trouble sharing what happened throughout the day, so I will be playing the “share it” game with her
Yes, I noticed that my son says a lot more when I ask what is good and what bad happened to you today than when I just ask how you are. Thanks for the new ideas for talking to my child!