For our family, meal time is very special. I love to spend time with my family, and it makes me feel like if I do this, that working and motherhood are in fact a good combination. If you make this special effort every day, or even just a few times a week, your outlook on working will likely change. Family time is key time.
Eat meals together. At least four times a week, we eat dinner as a family. Sometimes it's take out, and sometimes it is pancakes and scrambled eggs, but the important point is we are together.
As my kids have gotten older it has become harder to coordinate our schedules, but dinner is our time to really connect. Our conversations around the table provide opportunities for all of us to bond, plan, and learn from one another.
One way I try to make family dinners extra fun is with mealtime activities. Let me share two of my favorite ones that are both silly and educational. If you don't care for the below, take a look online; there are a ton of great ones out there!Pass the What? This game encourages vocabulary-building. Serve the meal family-style, placing all of the food in serving dishes on the table. When anyone would like a helping of a food, they must ask for it. But here's the twist: you cannot use the name of the food! Instead, you must give a description of what you'd like. So, instead of asking, "May I have some mashed potatoes?" you would need to say something like, "May I have some of the white, fluffy food that tastes good with gravy?" This has been a great way to get our family talking and laughing together at dinnertime
Set aside special time for each child. Parker and I have a "special time" every night before he goes to bed. For 15 minutes, we read together.
If the phone rings, or we have a visitor, Parker knows I will say, "I am sorry, I can't talk right now, it is Parker's special time." When that does happen, he literally grins from ear to ear, knowing that he has my full attention.
For my girls, once a month on a Saturday night we have a special "date night." We get dressed up, go downtown, and have dinner--just the three of us.
Create special moments that belong just to you and your children.
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