Make Meal Times for the Whole Family – One of my favourite times of the day is when we get together as a family and eat our evening meal together. We can’t do this every day due to our work schedules, but we try to do this as often as possible. As a family, we love it and it is a great time to get together after what has been a very busy day.
Set Your Meal Routine Around Your Child
One thing you will have to do if you want to eat together is change the time when you eat to suit your child. Before having our son, we used to eat around 6:30-7:00, but now we eat at 5:30 when we are eating together. This isn’t ideal, but if you are able to do it then I would strongly recommend it as eating together as a family is one of my favourite things to do.
When you do this, always try to make an occasion of it. We all sit together at the table in the kitchen, and always take time to make sure the table is set properly so we can enjoy the time we have together.
You Don’t Have to Eat the Same Meal
If you plan on eating something different to what you are feeding your child, this doesn’t mean you can’t sit together and eat at the same time. This is especially true when you are just starting to feed your child solid foods, as he will always be eating something different to you. It may be slightly more difficult to prepare two different meals, but trust me it is worth the effort!
Remember that your child’s food will need to cool down when cooking, so prepare their food so it is ready slightly before yours. This will give you time to serve your own meal and gives you the chance to make everything at once.
Family Desserts to Share
Like most families, we don’t have a dessert after every single meal, although our child does. To add some fun to the meal, we often ate desserts that we could share together from one bowl. This doesn’t have to be too complicated, a lot of the time we just put together a bowl of mixed fruit for this. We put the bowl in the middle of the table and share the fruit. This will help your child see that food can be for sharing, and will hopefully teach them to share going forward.
Meal times are great to spend together as a family. You may have to change your own routine but this will be worth it to sit down together as a family. You don’t have to be eating the same meal to do this, so try and start this from a young age. You don’t have to do it every single day, but try and make it something that you all look forward to doing as a family together. You and your child will love it!