How to Get the Most Out of Family Dinners
— March 24th, 2008. Topics: Family meals, Video» Printer-friendly version of post
Last week’s video and posting take a look at the benefits of dinnertime and what it is we should model during dinner. This video and the posting that will follow give you the tools to make it happen. Even if you’ve only got 20 minutes and one parent available, you CAN teach your kids dinnertime rituals that will make them happier people. Seriously!
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8 Responses to “How to Get the Most Out of Family Dinners”
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By Beth Farrington on Mar 25, 2008
Great!!!!
Beth Farrington
By Elaine Helle on Mar 28, 2008
Set the dinnertime memory with laughter moments.
Laughter is the best dinner time music. Researchers in Japan (Diabetes Care May 2003)suggest that laughter could increase energy consumption by working the abdominal muscles. Or it might affect the neuro-endocrine system, which controls glucose levels in the blood. In any event, as one researcher said, “We should laugh more.”
Dinnertime question: Tell us a story of your laugh out loud moment today?
Elaine Helle
Founder of Global Belly Laugh Day, January 24
By Anna in San Diego on Mar 31, 2008
I love the conversations about dinnertime! Dinner is important in our family, and we do sit down together almost every single night. (Bottom line, we’re lucky that it isn’t too hard for us to all get to the table.) Our challenge is keeping a 2 year old and 5 year old at the table for more than a few minutes. Talking about what we’re each thankful for works for a few minutes, but then they’re off and running. Forcing them to sit seems like a losing battle…especially if we’re trying to make dinnertime valuable and special for everyone. We model sitting together and talking — is this something we just have to wait for?
By Roxanne on Apr 9, 2008
My husband picks up my 8-yr old son Razmig from school and gets dinner ready until I get home at about 6:30 pm. But I CAN’T get them on board re: the dinnertime thing. Feeding Razmig snacks doesn’t seem to work. So, think I might try making him sit down at the table with us for 15 minutes or so anyway, if he has already eaten.
Having said that, the few nights we ARE able to eat together, I clearly see the benefit. In fact, on those nights my husband and I can hardly get a word in edgewise, ‘cos Razmig wants to keep filling us in on his life or pose impossible questions about anything and everything…
By Bluerosemama from YouTube on Aug 24, 2009
We thank you Mother Earth.
” ” ” Father Sun.
” ” ” for the plants in the garden…
where the Mother and Father are one.
adapted from a waldorf blessings book. This is something we adopted less than a year ago due to my 7 year old really wanting to say ‘grace’ like her friends who are very Christan, yet we are not. It has been an empowering and wonderful daily ritual that we share. Grace seems so religious, but in the end, it is mostly being grateful, and everyone could use some of that.