If you are someone that has young children, then you will be aware of just how annoying mealtime can be. No matter how much you love your children, something that you will not be able to avoid is just how horrible and messy they become.
For some reason, as soon as you place a plate in front of your child, they can’t help but to be a nuisance and make a mess. Perhaps it is a response that is naturally built into children, but either way, it is something that no parent looks forward to.
A big reason why young children become so frustrating at mealtimes is that they are full of energy. To go from playing to sitting at a table eating food will naturally be annoying to children and they will try to find ways to entertain themselves, even if it is destructive or annoying to you.
The best way that you can keep your child calm during lunch is by keeping them entertained and here are just some ways that you can entertain your children at lunch.
TV
Though you may not want to have the TV on during dinner time if your child is prone to making a mess and getting frustrated during mealtime, then putting the TV on may be a good idea.
However, you have to remember to have control of the situation and make sure your child isn’t just watching TV whenever they want. For example, avoid giving them something like an Ipad that they will be able to hold when they are watching TV. If you give them something like that, then they likely won’t eat their dinner and if you try to take it away from them, then they may throw a tantrum or become frustrated.
If you have control of a screen that is far away from the dinner table, then you will be able to control the volume and the content on the screen. If you notice that they are not eating their food, you can then turn it off and have complete control of the situation.
Conversation
How many times have you sat down to have dinner with your family, only for there to be complete silence when you are enjoying your meal? The silence maybe because everyone is enjoying their delicious meal, but it may also be because nobody has something to say.
Your meals with your family should be something that everyone looks forward to. It should be a time of day when everyone can discuss how their day has been and how they are feeling. If you all sit in silence when you are at a dinner table, then you are missing the chance to develop a close relationship with your family.
Instead of sitting in silence when you eat, try and get a conversation started. For example, you can ask your children how their day at school was, they will probably have a lot to say, as children love to complain about teachers or tell fun stories about their friends.
If they haven’t been in school, then you can try starting conversations based on different topics. You could try and have more in-depth conversations or even test their minds. A fun thing that a lot of families do at dinner is trying out riddles.
Riddles are a great way to test your mind and start up discussions. If you are someone with a lot of children, you can find fun kids riddles online and you can tell them it at the start of dinner. This will give them some time to think about it and when they are done they can talk about what they think the answer is.
