Meals with little ones don’t have to be diffiult.
Wear clothing backward, eat dinner backward (desert first, then the main course, and then salad), walk backward into and out of the kitchen, speak in backward sentences, etc.
Turn a ‘regular’ dinner into an ultra-special one. Light candles and play music. Or, have an indoor picnic by spreading a blanket on the floor and eating finger food.
Invite a few other families on your block to participate in a ‘moving’ along dinner party. Have salad at one family’s house, the main course at another, and desert at yet another house. Another option is to move along on your own turf. Serve the salad in a fort built in the dining room, serve the main course on the coffee table in the basement, and have desert somewhere special (like in the children’s playhouse).
Once children become too big (or independent) to sit in booster seats, cover the cushion and back of a kitchen chair with a pillow case. This makes for easy clean-up as the pillow cases can be thrown directly into the washing machine.
Go so far as to set the table for tomorrow’s meal just after today’s meal has been cleaned up. As you are preparing today’s meal, pull together all ingredients for tomorrow’s meal and set them together on a shelf in the fridge. Pull out all necessary pots and pans ready so that when you arrive home from work, you can begin cooking right away.
Family members are so busy these days that it is often difficult to have everyone sitting down and eating dinner together. Set aside one day each week as the non-negotiable dinner day. On this designated day, everyone eats dinner together – life events get scheduled around dinner on this day.
Compile a list of meal ideas and record them in a mini-notebook. Each week, flip through the notebook and, on a calendar, record ‘what’s for dinner’ each night for the following week. (Be sure to check commitments for the week). On days when you will get home late from work, set the crock pot up in the morning so that dinner is ready when you get home. Or, plan for quick meals of leftovers on busy days.
To encourage children to eat their meat (or vegetables), turn dinner time into a game. Each person must put a bite of meat (vegigies) on his/her fork and, on the count of three, take a bite together.
Try having breakfast for dinner. Serve bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrowns, pancakes, French toast or waffles. Everyone wears pajamas and slippers to the table.
Mommas – I encourage to look at my post How To Deal With The Toddler Who Is A Picky Eater.
If you’re looking for other ideas, please refer to my Littles page.
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