Did you know that family meals have an incredible number of benefits for children and families? Research has shown that children who participate in regular family meals experience:
- larger vocabulary
- better emotional regulation
- increased acceptance of trying new foods (especially with those young picky eaters)
- reduced chronic disease into adulthood
- reduced risk of disordered eating and eating disorders
- closer relationships with family
- better grades in school
- improved communication skills
- reduced risk of substance abuse
- improved self esteem
With such busy schedules, it can be difficult to make family meals a priority. Here are a few tips for getting family meals started in your home:
- Start small. Jumping from no family meals to every meal is a family meal can be overwhelming and short term. Instead try adding 1-3 more meals than you are doing right now. It can start as simply as one meal that is delivered to your front step that you sit around the table to eat for 20 minutes and you will be making a big win for your family.
- Let the family know about family meals. Have a conversation about why you want to start doing family meals. You can share some of the benefits and some ideas for how to add in a few times. Having the family on board and helping with reminders can help get the ball rolling.
- Simplify and save: Make a menu, grocery shop, and prep freezer meals at the beginning of the week to reduce the amount of work needed to prepare the meal.
- Make it fun and connecting. This is about you and your family. There is no perfect way. Find things that are fun for you to connect.
- Fun theme ideas to get you started:
- Homemade pizza and games night.
- Taco Tuesday! Put together a taco bar and everyone choose a topping to add in
- Picnic and sports support team: Have someone doing sports? Bring a picnic and the whole family to enjoy after a game!
- Around the world night: Have everyone choose a country and make a recipe that comes from that country. This is a fun way to have more helping hands to prepare dinner and a fun way to learn and engage with each other.
- Backwards day: Switch things up and be silly with it. Breakfast for dinner, wear shirts backwards, put silverware and cups upside down. Get some giggles and memories without too much extra work.
- Color theme: Choose a different color to focus each family meal on. Examples:
- Red dinner: Red sauce spaghetti with a side or strawberries, red bell peppers, and cherries
- Orange Dinner: Homemade orange chicken on rice with turmeric. Side of carrot sticks and sweet potato fries
- Yellow Lunch: Homemade mac and cheese with a side of yellow squash, corn, and pineapples
- Green Lunch: Green salad with cucumbers, green bell peppers, peas, and diced celery. Side of green grapes and pesto covered chicken.
- Blue breakfast: Blue spiralina smoothie bowl topped with blueberries
- Purple breakfast: Roasted purple potato hash, blueberry pancakes with acai yogurt on top.
- Favorites themes: Rotate each week with a meal focused on one member of the family. Let that member choose all their favorites and help with making the meal.
- Fun theme ideas to get you started:
Family meals are a golden key to family health. It does not need to be complicated, just small, intentional moments to connect and thrive together.
As we close out national family meals months, try some ideas and share your wins for family meals!