Prep Dish founder Allison Schaaf shares 7 family mealtime lessons from life with 3 kids. No matter what stage you're in, these tips are a game-changer.
This page contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support of Prep Dish!
Key Takeaways
- Successful family mealtime in this stage requires a combination of planning and flexibility.
- Family mealtime doesn't have to be dinner! Family breakfast can be a lovely start to the day.
- Embrace convenience, such as grocery delivery, in busy stages.
Family mealtime has always been a huge priority for me, but that doesn't mean it's always been easy. Every time I've had a major life change, or even schedule change, I've had to reconfigure how we do family mealtime. This has certainly been true as we've welcomed our third son into our family.
Still, even in the often chaotic stage of having a newborn, family mealtime remained a cornerstone of our family culture, something that brought us together and provided stability and togetherness in a time of change.
(Curious about the benefits of family mealtime? This article from Stanford Medicine outlines the basics.)
7 Family Mealtime Lessons for 3 Kids
I've been reflecting on what I've learned through family mealtime with three young kids. My hope is that one of these takeaways will help you establish family mealtime or help make your family meals a little more peaceful and enjoyable.
1. Assign Meals to Specific Days
If you're at all familiar with my work, you know that I've prioritized meal prep for over a decade, long before I had a family of my own to feed. Early in my career, I worked as a private chef, essentially meal prepping for a variety of people to help them have a smooth week. I then transitioned that business into Prep Dish, offering meal prep meal plans to thousands of families.
With that background, I obviously meal plan every week. I actually use our Prep Dish meal plans with my own family (usually the Super Fast menu!) That said, as we've transitioned to a family of five, I've realized I need to actually assign meals to specific days. In other words, I come up with a more detailed plan each week.
More than anything, this takes away even more of the mental load of thinking about what's for dinner. I know what's for dinner, it's on my calendar and I don't even have to think about it. I can of course change the plan based on what we feel like eating, but if I don't want to think about it, I don't have to, and that's HUGE!
2. Family Mealtime doesn't have to mean dinner!
I love family dinners and we do them pretty much every night in our house. That said, I've realized that family mealtime can be more flexible than that. Personally, I've grown to really love family breakfasts!
I'm an early riser and love the ritual of preparing a nice, hot breakfast to enjoy with my family. It provides such a nice connection time at the start of the day before they go to school and I begin my work day.
So if you have a baby who's always fussy at dinner time and it's miserable, or you have meetings or soccer practice that make family dinner impossible some nights, try a different meal instead! It could be breakfast or weekend lunches. Think outside the box!
3. Grocery Delivery is 100% Worth It
Grocery delivery is often a bit more expensive than going to the store yourself. That's generally true of convenience. It comes at a cost.
That said, if it feasibly fits into your budget, embracing convenience in extra busy times or times of change can be 100% worth it. For me, that's using grocery delivery. The time savings are huge and I know that one day I'll be back in the stage when I enjoy leisurely perusing the aisles of our local market, but that stage is not right now and I'm totally fine with that.
4. Young Kids Can Actually be Helpful for Family Meals
I know that cooking with kids can elicit strong feelings. The chaos, the mess and the extra time associated with kids in the kitchen can feel overwhelming. But when it comes to kids in the kitchen, you have to consider the long game.
While it's true that cooking with kids is not always quicker or easier in the moment, it is SO incredibly helpful to have kiddos who can actually be helpful when it's time to prepare a meal. A three-year-old who can help prepare a salad, a five-year-old who can make his own breakfast, these are game changers when it comes to making family mealtime happen.
So I want to encourage you to invite your children into the kitchen, when you can. This does not have to be all or nothing. It does not mean you need to involve your toddler when it's 5:30 and you're in a huge rush to get dinner on the table.
But it might mean showing your little one how to chop fruit or scramble eggs when you're making Saturday breakfast. It might mean showing them something simple, like how to make a PB&J, when it's time to prepare lunch on Sunday. These simple little steps can add up to big skills over time.
Check out my guide on Simple Kids Cooking Activities for Different Stages for ideas on how to get started!
I also highly recommend Katie Kimball's Kids Cook Real Food video lesson series (< affiliate link), teaching your kids step by step how to be successful in the kitchen.
5. Timing is Everything
One big lesson I've learned regarding family mealtime with young kids is that timing really matters. If dinner is even 15 minutes later than usual, things can start to fall apart. I try to have dinner ready nice and early so that I don't have to rush and everyone is in good spirits.
I know this can be challenging, depending on your family schedule, but I find that meal prep really helps with this one. I know that I'll have minimal time to get dinner on the table many nights and I simply couldn't do it without strategic meal prep. (Psst! Not sure what I'm talking about with meal prep? Check out my guide on How to Start Meal Prepping.)
6. Holding the Baby at Dinner is Short Term
Whether it's a newborn or something totally different, it's likely that whatever is throwing a wrench in your family mealtime game is short term. For me, reminding myself that holding a baby while I eat dinner is short term, and something I will actually miss, made a big difference in my mental attitude toward family mealtime in this stage.
Does it make it more difficult to eat? Yes. But is it also incredibly sweet and fleeting? Yes.
Stages and schedules change and almost nothin in life is forever, so focus on making family meals work for you now, while knowing that the challenges will change in the future.
7. Meal Prep When You Can
I'm generally a big proponent of scheduling meal prep and putting it on the calendar. I don't know about you but, for me, if it's on the calendar, it's a lot more likely to happen.
That said, in this particular stage of life, I've been learning to embrace simply fitting meal prep in when I can. That might mean chopping a couple of extra onions when I'm making dinner or making a salad dressing for the week while I'm preparing lunch. Fitting little meal prep tasks in here and there when I can is sometimes easier than scheduling an hour or two for a marathon meal prep session.
What makes this doable? My Prep Dish meal prep list! Each of our meal plans comes with a detailed meal prep page outlining steps to prep each meal ahead. This means I can simply glance at the plan and tackle the next prep item on the list. It also means I can easily hand off the list to my husband if needed, which I love!
FAQ – Everything You Need to Know about Family Mealtime
Why is family mealtime important?
The benefits of family mealtime include better physical health, stronger family connections, lower risks of things like depression and eating disorders and better vocabularies.
How to make family mealtime work with a busy schedule?
Meal planning and meal prep are key to making family mealtime work with a busy schedule. At the beginning of the week, map out which meals you plan to serve which days. Then do whatever “meal prep” tasks you can ahead of time to make dinner easier. For example, wash and chop produce, make sauces and salad dressings, etc. so that you're not starting from scratch on a busy weeknight.
What are some easy recipes for family meals?
This Easy Pasta w/ Italian Sausage & Spinach, Tex Mex Casserole and Classic Chicken Soup all make great family meals. Also check out these 25 meal prep, family-friendly dinners!
This page contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support of Prep Dish!
0 Comments