Parents - How do you deal with kids and meals?

In My Humble Opinion
21

At our house (and in my house when I was growing up) food isn’t and wasn’t just food, and eating a meal isn’t and wasn’t just a way to keep yourself from starving. Meals are social occasions and an opportunity to share your day with the family. My 6 year old daughter has a standard way of starting us all off: “So, Daddy, how was your day?” We then go around the table and Lilly gets to ask everyone, “So, X, how was your day?”

Watching the television and reading at the table are incredibly rude, IMHO, and send the following message: “I’m sitting here with you at the table, but instead of interacting with you I’d rather watch TV or read the newspaper.”

22

**zuma **and irishgirl make good points about the significance of the evening meal. As I think through it now I see it as being more important to have an enjoyable family moment than to get nutrition.

I’ve discussed with them some of the ideas from this thread and they seem much happier with the focus on fun rather than eating “adult food”.