The hardest thing to do when you’re radiating a family is to get everybody around the same table at the same time to eat a meal. If you can do that without switching on the TV or inviting screens to the table, then you’re already ahead of the game. On TV, meal times are always offered as some kind of magical family time where everybody sits nicely in their finest Sunday clothing and together while having polite conversation. It’s just not the case.
If your kids are not inclined to pay attention at the table, or they aren’t particularly great with their table manners, then getting everybody to the table is not the easiest thing to do at all.Mealtimes do not have to be recurrently stressful for your family. When the stress happens around the table, it tends to bleed into the rest of your life, and you don’t want to live like that if you can avoid it. Parents and siblings will feel a lot of stress if they’re having to constantly deal with noise and upset, So what you have to do is work to ensure that you can make it. Let’s take a look at how you can do that
1. Have a proper meal time space.
Even if you don’t have a dining room, you can still have modern circular dining tables put up in your kitchen or in your living space. A circular dining table is always a better option if you’re trying to get everybody’s attention around the table, because nobody’s looking around corners to see anybody. You can see every member sitting around the table as a family, and it’s easier to have discussions this way. There are so many ways that you can get kids to be involved in conversations and food, but sitting where you can see everybody is the first way that everybody can be comfortable.
2. Build a positive environment
If you try to force everybody to sit on a chair and eat exactly what you give them, it’s going to become stressful. Figure out how to make mealtimes more fluid in that if people want to stand and eat but they’re still at the table, they can. If the kids are asking you to be a short order cook and you have the ability to do that so that you can avoid food disorders or avoidances, then do that. Whatever it takes to make mealtimes easy, you should do, even if it would normally take you out of your comfort zone. The whole idea is to make sure that everybody is comfortable.
3. Leave the screens behind
It’s important to try to connect together as a family, so leaving the screens behind is a good idea. If there needs to be other noise in the room, then turn on some music at a low level so that you can have something playing in the background. Meal times are a great time to encourage conversation, and it’s much easier to do that when nobody’s staring at the TV.