The Young and the Restless

Little Chefs

"The facts are on the table: eating dinner together every night keeps the doors of communication open. It’s the perfect time and place to reconnect and to show your kids that they are your priority. Sitting across the table is where and when you can find out more about your children’s likes, dislikes, and daily life. Having this information can help you direct your children toward positive activities and behavior, reducing the likelihood that they will get involved with alcohol, tobacco, and/or illegal drugs. Compared to teens that have frequent family dinners, those who rarely have family dinners are three-and-a-half times more likely to have abused prescription drugs or an illegal drug other than marijuana. Girls who have five or more meals a week with their families are one-third less likely to develop unhealthy eating habits, which can range from skipping meals to full-fledged anorexia or abusing diet pills. Parental influence and involvement is an important tool in preventing substance abuse. Regularly sitting down for a meal with your children is one way to connect with them and be involved with what is happening in their lives." (from the US Department of Health and Human Services)

So do those statistics still apply if your family meatimes consist of constantly threatening your 4 year old to eat atleast 5 bites, which usually results in an average of 3 temper tantrums and 3 time-outs and ends with me practically pinning him down and spoon feeding him his minimum of 5 bites? I really hope not, otherwise we are in trouble! Seriously, family meal time should be a happy, relaxed and memorable experience but I find myself dreading it half the time because we go through the same thing night after night. He takes one look at the food and says "I don't like it" and then the fun starts. I refuse to be a short order chef and cater to his particular taste, so there have been many nights that he has gone to bed without eating anything because he refuses to eat what I put on the table (thankfully Kylie is pretty easy going when it comes to food, she's even less picky than I am and can eat steak and shrimp with the best of them--just don't make her get near a bread crust, though). After many frustrating mealtimes I decided to try something new. Each week I let the kids go through my recipe book and pick any meal that they want to put on the menu for that week. When it's their night for the meal they get to be my little chefs and help me cook. So far they have loved it. Even though I'm not too thrilled about eating corn dogs for dinner, it makes it worth it to know that there is atleast one meal I won't have to fight Jayden over eating. They get so excited about being my little chefs and it's been nice spending that one on one time with just them in the kitchen. The first thing Jayden asked when he woke up this morning was if it was his day to cook the noodles (spaghetti noodles with butter and parmesan-he has a thing against spaghetti sauce, and "snake bread"-breadsticks) and he couldn't have been more excited when I told him that it was. So maybe there is hope that my kids won't turn into anorexic druggies afterall.