October is National Eat Together, Eat Better Month
When I was a child, my mother began working to help support our family. It was at a time when few moms worked outside of the home, and there weren’t as many convenience and take-out foods for quick meals. Even if those foods had been available, they wouldn’t have been in the budget on a regular basis.
In spite of being tired at the end the day, my mother was militant about putting balanced meals on the table. Her dinners weren’t particularly elaborate, but they would put most of today’s meals to shame. In addition to a healthy entrée and a grain, we always had two vegetables, and some sort of fruit for dessert.
Make Family Meals High Priority
Good nutrition was important to my mom, but so was coming together as a family at the end of the day.
My mom and I are on the same page when it comes to family meals, even if our circumstances are different. I work from home, and have more flexibility when it comes to shopping for and preparing food, and I have two busy teenagers and an equally active 12-year-old whose dance, tennis, and gymnastic classes interfere with the so-called dinner hour. When I was a kid, we were all home by 6 P.M.
I know how hard it can be to gather for family meals, especially as children get older.
But it’s important to make family meals a priority. You don’t have to eat dinner together; breakfast and lunch count, too. Don’t worry if you can’t get the entire family at the table for meals. The bottom line is that uninterrupted time spent together is what matters most, whether it’s over a meal, or not.
Family Meals Are About More than Food
According to the Eat Together, Eat Better program, which promotes National Eat Together, Eat Better month, family meals are for more than eating.
Kids take comfort in ritual and family meals are a part of a routine they can count on. Mealtimes may be one of the only times during the day when children get the chance to talk with their parents (hopefully) without the distraction of the phone, internet, or TV. And research shows that mealtime conversation boosts a young child’s vocabulary, which could translate into improved academic performance down the line.
Manage Family Meals
The following strategies from Eat Together, Eat Better, and from my own experience, can make family mealtimes more manageable:
- Shop for and cook healthy foods together. Prepare at least one food on the weekend, such as beef stew or lasagna, to get a jump on weeknight meals.
- Have breakfast for dinner. If you’d rather spend time with your family than cooking and cleaning up, have omelets, scrambled eggs, or French toast made with whole grain bread for your evening dish. Add milk, and fruit or vegetables and you have a meal.
- Capitalize on convenience. Pair up a store-bought roasted chicken with pre-cut frozen vegetables and a quick-cooking grain, such as whole-wheat couscous.
- Cook it quick, but eat it slow, allowing ample time to talk with each other.
- Turn the TV off, and don’t take telephone calls or allow texting at the table.
- Keep food fights to a minimum. Forcing children to eat food they don’t like will make them tense. Try to serve a few foods that everyone enjoys at each meal.