I was recently asked by Cate over at Sweetnick’s to be a contributing writer on the Well Fed Network. I’ve been submitting articles for the past couple of weeks and keep forgetting to mention it here. If you are into all things food, then make sure you bookmark the Well Fed Network. There is something for everyone! This article has been submitted and will soon be up in the Kids Cuisne section:
Does this sound familiar? Dinner is ready… you are trying to get everyone gathered around table. Once seated, you pass around the food and as it is going around your kids are throwing endless demands at you. “Mom…I need more milk.” “Mom… I need another napkin.” “Mom…can you get me some dip for my veggies?” By the time you actually get to sit down to start eating, your food is cold and the race through dinner has ended…everyone is asking to be excused. Your dream of having a nice, leisurely dinner together as a family has come to a halt and reality has hit hard. Your family is not connecting over the dinner table. They are simply there to bark demands, eat and run.
Author Julienne Smith was tired of having her kitchen table be the site of a hit and run. She wanted more… she wanted her family to connect around the table and for the conversations to be deep and meaningful. Isn’t that how it was when we all grew up? We didn’t have a million places to be… life was slower and dinner time was an important event in our every day lives.
Julienne created a wonderful product to help solve this problem for all of us. The product is called “Food For Talk” and it is a recipe box full of thought provoking questions to get your family communicating around the table again. The concept is simple… place the box of cards on the kitchen table at meal time and have one child pick a card. That child then reads the question out loud and gives everyone the chance to ponder the question and think about their answers. Then, as dinner is progressing, you go around the table and each person gets the chance to say their answer to the question out loud. The answers in turn will often result in even deeper conversation…. what every parent out there dreams about having with their children.
Some of our favorite questions from the collection are:
- Finish this sentence: “The most beautiful thing I have ever seen is…”
- What is your least favorite household chore? Are there any you like to do?”
- Name ten reasons why you are glad to be alive.
Before you throw out the caution flag and go on strike with your family, change the rules of the dinner race. Pick up some of Julienne’s cards and see if you can change the dinner sprint into a marathon event. Make meal time an occasion that everyone in the family looks forward to and make it one where you can bring the connection we all long for back to the table.
What an incredible idea. Sometimes when you try too hard to start a conversation at meals especially with older kids you end up with more silence, but making it into a game, that is a great way to play with food!
So cool that you are writing over there! I’m so proud of you! 🙂
Sounds like it could get some conversations started and going places. We do have to get tricky sometimes to get a resonable dinner time.
Great article and cute idea for a product. Writing these articles for well fed must be so much fun for you 🙂 Yay!
That dinner conversation idea is a great one. I think our kids need cues to *stop* talking though because they talk so much they don’t actually eat!
Well done on writing for the Well Fed Network!
congrats! i am headed over right now to check out the network.
Swinging in for the Ultimate blog party. Nice to meet ya.
PARTY ON!!!
My first party favor giveaway has begun. Come over when ya get a chance.
Great idea. We have meals together nearly every night and sometimes we are connected and sometimes not but that’s pretty normal with a hormonal teen in the house. Often I just need to ask one question to get him blabbering on endlessly about something that happened in school. Quite often he is way too busy stuffing himself to ward off the endless hunger of being a boy his age.
I am looking forward to reading your writings over there! I almost signed up for the kids section but I decided against it. I recently was asked to write for them as well and write for a few of their websites! 🙂
Great writing and what a find. Both my husband and I have fond memories of family dinners…we’d even linger at the table after we were done. (Though my mom DID complain about us eating too quickly.) We hope to pass the experience on to our kid. It’s nice to know there’s a tool to help!
It’s a nice idea, however I find it truly sad that to get families talking again(the way I did as a kid) that we need a card game.
You always offer such useful information, Kristen. I don’t have kids, but I still appreciate the message.
Hey! We own that box! I am so embarrassed to say, we haven’t opened it yet… but now I will! Thanks for the reminder!
That’s great, Kristen! About the Well Fed Network, I mean. You are an excellent writer and deserve to be read (and fed!).