{"id":1687,"date":"2014-02-04T22:17:19","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T03:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.positivelyparenting.com\/?p=1687"},"modified":"2015-12-04T12:48:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T17:48:25","slug":"seven-ways-to-make-mealtimes-less-stressful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlparentcoach.com\/new\/parenting\/seven-ways-to-make-mealtimes-less-stressful\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Ways To Make Mealtimes Less Stressful"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After asking my readers to give their ideas for making mealtime less stressful, I was flooded with ideas, both practical and positive.<\/h2>\n

I deeply believe in the KISS factor (Keep It Simple, Sweetie), so I culled the responses for the easiest, most applicable, fun, and straightforward strategies and ideas.<\/h3>\n

Here are the best of the best and why<\/i> they work:<\/h4>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0 Accept that young children are tired at dinner.\u00a0 <\/b>We expect children to sit and enjoy our organic chicken at an hour where they have about five good minutes in them.\u00a0 Children have, largely, front-loaded their calories during the day, and they are simply not ready to \u201cfill up\u201d at the hour we have chosen!<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0 Call a meeting and set the expectations.<\/b>\u00a0 If the children are 3.5 and older, have them provide some ideas about the foods they would like to eat, and put them on the menu for the week.\u00a0 Let the children know that there will no other food served.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0 Have some conversation at the ready.\u00a0 <\/b>Children love to be silly, they love family stories (especially involving danger\/injury\/or mistake-making), and they love being in charge of the conversation.\u00a0 For instance, these Table Topics are a family favorite at my house!\u00a0 To make it truly person, create your own table topics (instructions here).<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0 Serve the food family style.<\/b>\u00a0 If you keep this as a practice and keep the focus on the family (not the food), the children will enjoy<\/i> making their choices, and will better learn to moderate their own hunger cues, as well as correlate their hunger to the amounts of the food they take to their plates.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t promote a \u201cclean the plate\u201d mentality.<\/b>\u00a0 Nutritionists have been fighting this for a while, saying it promotes overeating and lack of hunger and self-awareness.\u00a0 From a parenting perspective, it also makes you into the wretched \u201cfood police.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOne more bites of peas\u2026.\u201d And \u201cWhen you eat your broccoli, you can have dessert\u2026\u201d\u00a0 All of the cajoling and reminding sparks children\u2019s counterwill<\/i> or the idea of doing the opposite of what is asked.<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0\u00a0 Keep your boundaries.<\/b>\u00a0 If you say the kitchen is closed at 7 PM or that the food stops after dinner, then stick to your word!<\/i>\u00a0 Yes, there will be some yelling.\u00a0 Yes, there will be crying and whining.\u00a0 If you can withstand the storm of the transition, the child will adapt<\/i>.\u00a0 As the parent, you have to stay strong; this will feel very<\/i> hard.\u00a0 But it will <\/i>pass!<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0\u00a0 Keep the sweets as celebrations, not rewards.\u00a0 <\/b>Go ahead, have some fun!\u00a0 If it has been a tough week of holding boundaries and the children have done well, have a \u201cSundaes on Sunday\u201d night.\u00a0 Or have a \u201cDessert First\u201d for dinner one night.\u00a0 Have fun.\u00a0 <\/i>Show the children that yes, you have rules, and sometimes it is okay to break the rules.\u00a0 Everyone will have a blast, and the idea is to laugh <\/i>and enjoy <\/i>each other.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After asking my readers to give their ideas for making mealtime less stressful, I was flooded with ideas, both practical and positive. I deeply believe in the KISS factor (Keep It Simple, Sweetie), so I culled the responses for the easiest, most applicable, fun, and straightforward strategies and ideas. Here are the best of the best and why they work: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nSeven Ways To Make Mealtimes Less Stressful - Meghan Leahy Parent Coach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mlparentcoach.com\/new\/parenting\/seven-ways-to-make-mealtimes-less-stressful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seven Ways To Make Mealtimes Less Stressful - Meghan Leahy Parent Coach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After asking my readers to give their ideas for making mealtime less stressful, I was flooded with ideas, both practical and positive. 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