As I think most of you know I cook dinner pretty much every night.  Well maybe more like 4 nights a week.  We have leftovers 2 of the nights and typically budget a meal out a week. I make the same meal for everyone in the house. No special dinner for the kids consisting of P, B and J or mac-n-cheese while the hubby and I eat something else.  We all eat whatever is on the menu plan for that day. And not everyone likes it.  The Little Dude would eat cereal, fruit, sandwiches or chips for every meal. He complains, cries and typically throws a tantrum nightly at dinner.  But he still eats the exact same meal as us.

Why I am telling you about this? Last week one of my college friends wrote a post on Facebook about why does she even bother making dinner. And well, I remember those nights. I would be so frustrated after cooking with one to three kids hanging on my leg whining and crying because they were so hungry. Fast forward half an hour, the same “starving” child would be crying as I forced them to eat just a little bit of their food. Her post reminded me of the dinnertime drama hour. Plus with the new year I have heard lots of friends talking about how this year they are working on changing up meals for their family.  Some friends have the goal of the whole family eating together each night.  Other friends are trying to make their kids eat what the grown ups eat.  And another friend is just trying to force her kids to eat.

Let me preface the rest of this post with this…I am not an expert on anything.  But I have three children, two of which are pretty good eaters. (Give me another year or so with the Little Dude. I was a little too lax with him thus far but plan on being a little stricter this year.) And we have fairly successful and great family dinners most nights of the week.

Things we do at my house to make dinner a success:

• We are consistent with all sitting down to dinner together whenever physically possible. It doesn’t happen every night. But when it is possible, we all eat together.
• Everyone eats the same thing. You don’t have to like everything on your plate. And you don’t have to eat a lot of it, but you must try it.
• There are no seconds of one thing if you haven’t eaten the minimum of everything else. We have the age in bites rule. You can check out this post to remember what that is. So before you can have seconds of what you like, you need to try a little of bit of what you don’t. Now I am not evil, so sometimes I make exceptions for things I know one child may not like. For example, the Drama Queen will not eat mushrooms, tomatoes or olives and I never force her to.  She has eaten them enough to know she truly doesn’t like them. Dash doesn’t like cooked carrots, artichokes, or avocados. When we are eating those I give him a reprieve.
• No one is allowed to get up until everyone is done eating.  And you have to be excused by asking for permission. This allows lots of talking times because the Drama Queen makes me look like a speed eater and I am certainly not.
• We don’t eat a million snacks in the late afternoon before dinner. Since we normally eat by 6pm, I don’t allow the kids to eat snacks after about 4pm.
• We serve dessert almost every night.  And it is, nine times out of tenm a piece of fruit. My kids think any fruit is something very special. This makes them want to eat it more. They never turn it down. This makes me a happy mommy.

If you are frustrated at your house let me make a suggestion. Come up with some dinner and/or meal guidelines at your house. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy or drastic. Just make it what you can live with. Give it some time. Don’t give up. Have lots of patience. And eventually it WILL pay off.

Pinky swear!