How are meal times with your kids. Ours can range from pleasant to a complete disaster. How do you handle meal times with your kids? What are your rules and what do you let slide?
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Every meal is different in terms of attitude. Breakfast can be a little lax in rules but for dinner the rule is that you sit down to eat. He can eat the big table or at the little table but he sits on his bottom to eat. He may eat what is given to him, he does not get a separate meal (unless there is a special circumstance like major teething where everything hurts so sometimes a special something that is cold and gentle on teeth is given). He may eat as much or as little as he wants but that meal is the only dinner he'll get. No snacks later. If there is total meltdown, we may take it outside and let him picnic but we all eat out side together, sitting. That's about as many rules as he can handle and still get food in him.
ETA: no electronics or toys come to the table.
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well he's not a preschooler but we're trying to establish rules so that we can hopefully avoid meal time disasters because I think meal time should be a lovely family time!
Our rules
-no tv during dinner
- no electronics (including the parents - no phones!)
- no toys at the table
- we all stay seated until everyone is done
- we eat together
- no eating in the living room (unless it's the parents and baby is asleep
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Some days are great and some days are just awful and the entire night is us practically screaming at him to swallow his food. This is a constant struggle for us because we hate the idea of him going to bed hungry, but most nights he just refuses to eat. He plays with his food, and if we threaten him with a time out or no treat after dinner, he'll put the food in his mouth. But not chew or swallow. Then if we bark at him to chew, he'll chew... but not swallow. This can sometimes lead to gagging and vomiting. Which is obviously counterproductive. So these days we're just trying to serve him the food and leave him alone to do what he will.
Our hard-and-fast rules are:
sit on your bum (99% of the time he's in his high chair.. sometimes on weekends we'll let him sit on a regular chair but after lots of on and off he ends up back in the high chair)
if you're not eating your food, only small sips of milk
if you don't finish what we told you to finish, no after dinner treatI also really hate it when he picks through his food with his hands and picks out the things he doesn't want to eat (pieces of vegetables in the sauce, etc).
We try to end the evening on a positive note (especially since on weeknights bedtime follows right after dinner) so even if he hasn't eaten anything and he's sad about not getting a treat, we praise him for trying and ask him if he'll try harder tomorrow.
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So far our only rules are that everyone has to sit nicely on their chairs and that we have to try everything on our plates. We don't make DD eat things she doesn't like but she does have to take one bite of everything on her plate. I usually make her plate with a small portion of whatever my husband and I are eating, plus a few small sides of foods I know she'll eat, like fruit, cheese, pasta, etc... oh, we also try to enforce that everyone stays at the table until everybody has finished eating, but we have varying success with that one. Some nights we just let it slide, if it's a particularly difficult night.
Eta: oh, we don't do electronics/tv at the table either. Meals are family time.
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Our rules for DD are:
- you must try at least one bite of everything
- you must sit nicely at the table
- unless you have eaten an acceptable amount (determined by me or DH) you cannot say you are full and still eat dessert (usually a small treat, like a gummy). She is notorious for taking two bites and saying "I'm full... can I have my treat now?"
- you must bring your dishes to the sinkShe's at the age where dinner isn't usually too bad any more.
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Our number 1 rule is that we have to eat together and wait for everyone to finish before leaving the table. There are no toys at the table.
As for actually eating the meal, it's a hit or miss with them. My younger one is better but she now sees her brother refusing food and she'll sometimes follow. I try to include something I know they'll eat and something I want them to try. So, most of the time, they'll leave some food behind. We're not too strict about making them finish everything. They usually just get verbal praises when they eat well. On the weekends, they'll sometimes get an after meal treat. There might be more after meal treats during the summer though.
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Our meal times aren't awful most of the time, she eats basically anything we give her but her butt dragging is getting worse! My 4 year old takes for ever to eat and she is a crafty little distracter with her 1000 questions haha. "Mommy..." "yes Caidence...?" "I love you mommy!" "I love you too, Caidence now eat you food".... every single time!
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@cyndistar3: my DD is just like that!
Today's dinner was bad because the ice cream truck kept driving up and down my street and she kept screaming ice cream truck! Why are they torturing me by driving around at dinner time ??? -
She is usually pretty good. Rules:
-help me set the table
-sit in her booster chair
-no toys
-try everything on your plate but you don't have to eat it if you really don't like it
-no playing with food
-eats the same food as mom and dad or else go to bed hungry
-doesn't get more of something she likes if she hasn't tried everything else yet
-must excuse herself from the table once she is done
-depending on what is going on, I may or may not make her help me clear the table. I want to be more consistent about this last point. -
Olive is so good at dinnertime. She sits there and feeds herself the entire time.
Charlie on the other hand..... the only way we can get him to sit through an entire meal is to tell him stories. He loves stories so much he will do almost anything for them. He has to sit there though even if he doesn't want to eat because it's family dinnertime.
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No blowing bubbles in your drink...too messy.
Other than that...it has been fine. We let her get down the table when she is done. -
Every day is a battle. Not the eating part, the part where it takes 1.5 hours to eat dinner. Breakfast and lunch is faster but it really depends. Drives me completely bonkers every day bugging him about eating faster instead of playing with his hands (pretending to fly or whatever) and smearing his food all over the table or copying everything his little brother is doing (i.e., spitting, hitting the table, etc.). If it's taking him too long I just tell him to take 3 or 5 bites, depending on how much he has left, and let him be done with it. I'd like for him to eat fruit after each meal but sometimes I just can't stand seeing him sit there any longer. It's PAINFUL.... but he's a great eater. LOL!
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