Isn't dinnertime so fun. . .ours is typically a lot of work for about 5 minutes of eating and LOTS AND LOTS of whining! :) I've done a few things to try and help alleviate my dinnertime aggravation:
1-you are not allowed to say you don't like something before you have tried it, honestly, this rule doesn't work--my kids can tell you they don't like something before you've even gotten the answer to "what's for dinner" out of your mouth :)
2-no talk of treats until dinner is over--and if you had breakfast for dinner or chicken nuggets. . .then that was your treat
3-when you are done with your meal you may either sit and have conversation with the family, or you may go to your room and play quietly until we are all done
I'm sure this last one seems harsh, but I found that if one of the boys got up and regained control over the TV the other would immediately be done and even though he really was eating. Also, ONE of my children will start eating if he sits there long enough and gets distracted from the fact that "he doesn't like anything" on his plate.
These rules and attempting to have everyone's plates on the table before I call them to sit down--this avoids the: "where's mine??" and "I don't want (insert any food you can think of here) on my plate"--is how I try to control the madness. Generally by the time I get everyone settled and finally sit down with my own plate everyone else is getting up. This is not actually what I had envisioned my family meals to be. I had always imagined that we would all sit down together and have stimulating and deep conversations all while enjoying a healthful delicious home cooked meal.....
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Yea, right! Does anyone else have this problem?? Well, today I remembered that I had pinned something on Pinterest a few months or so ago-and even as I pinned it I thought--I'll never do this, it's a great idea, but I'll never get it done. GUESS WHAT--today I had a few minutes so I decided to give it a go:
What is it you ask?? Simple, it's a jar full of questions! I didn't even have to come up with the questions myself--this fabulous lady has lists and lists of them! I took the first 2 lists, cut them up--filtered them a bit b/c we are dealing with a 6 year old and a 3 year old, and put them in a jar! Camden really got into it tonight. I made him wait until we were all sitting and then he got to choose one. Since it was our first night, I let Evan choose one too. I might let them both pull one out each night, we will see. Honestly, Evan didn't really get it--but it doesn't take him long to catch onto this stuff so I think a week or so and he'll be all into it too! I will keep you posted on how it goes--some questions are just fun, some make you think, and some dig a little. I want something to get us all focused on each other--and also it's good for them to learn to have a conversation at meal time instead of just making fart noises and gagging over their (insert any food you can think of here). . .
For the record. . .2 nights in a row people. . .just sayin'
