Parenting Guide : How to Enjoy Your Family Meals Together

Meal-times can be an important learning experience for your child. Good nutrition, table manners, polite conversation, family togetherness... How do you manage to convey all this to your kids in between serving dinner and washing the dishes? Here are five golden rules which will help your family make the most of meal-
times.

Parenting Guide : How to Enjoy Your Family Meals Together

Parenting Guide : Eat together

Maybe it seems complicated to have the entire family gathering together for dinner together each night - but if you can't manage it at dinner, when will you all sit down together? This is often the only opportunity each day to share half an hour together as a family. Encourage conversation: Who had a good day and who didn't? As a bonus, young children are likely to imitate Mum and Dad enjoying their vegetables.

Parenting Guide : Always sit when you eat

Establish this rule the moment your baby starts walking. Kids don't need to be formally seated at the table every time they eat a piece of fruit, but you can set aside a small chair for snacks. If you allow your toddler to wander around munching on crackers and soft banana, you are condemned to hours of extra cleaning, in between trying to identify the mysterious furry substance stuck to the carpet.

Parenting Guide : Take what you want, eat what you take

It might seem more efficient to for the Domestic Chef to serve out all the meals. But if you allow everyone to serve themselves - even the little people - there's less chance of waste and less risk of tearful children being nagged to finish one last mouthful when they're already full. Make sure kids understand that they must eat everything they take, and they will learn to assess exactly how hungry they are.

Parenting Guide : Don't sip while you sup

According to an old wives tale, drinking during meals turns all your food into indigestible mush in your stomach. Perhaps this is true, but children are more likely to turn their meal into soup on their plates as they play with their drinks. Or they will fill up on water, so they're not hungry for the nutritious food you spent hours preparing. So it is ultimately more practical to ban drinks at meal-times - unless you're trialling a particularly spicy dish.

Parenting Guide : Say "Thank you for dinner"

It's easy for children - and other family members - to assume that dinner magically appears on the table each evening. Once they've eaten, they disappear, leaving the lonely and resentful Domestic Chef contemplating soiled plates and cutlery. Demonstrate some appreciation by encouraging the kids to say "thank you for dinner" each night. Not only will your Domestic Chef appreciate the courtesy, it will also help children understand an important element of the food chain - meals must be prepared.