On campuses, in start-ups, we know that eating and drinking together stimulates collaborative intelligence. Where did this great concept come from? In the family meal! Turn off the TV and notebooks. You will learn a lot about the reality of your children!
It starts from the preparation
» What are we eating ? « Is in itself an invitation to build together …
Educate the taste buds by diversity, oblige (a little) to taste » anyway « , respect the repulsions for this or that food … Make with all that a menu. This organization may seem restrictive but you have a good opportunity for exchanges … Of course, it is often the mother who sticks to it, but more and more fathers start out in the kitchen, and not only on weekends. Even with toddlers, prepare food for has its “dream team effect” …: cut strawberries, pass radishes under water, etc… Beginning with very simple tasks, everyone agrees to participate.
Take the time to sit around a table
With busy schedules, we agree that a meal (often dinner) with family should not last too long. Neither have too many dishes. But taking the time to ask, to gather around a table, it allows to assess the well-being or crises of his children. Their harmony or conflict … When they are many, often in the same school, the subject of teachers will teach you a lot too.
At least once a week, turn off the TV
All the families in the world share their family meals with … the TV on…. We vaguely follow the news, the hubbub is a background noise, the images follow one another … It is sometimes an opportunity to educate for citizenship, to recall the role of a minister or a mayor, what is prison, why agriculture makes us eat (ingest) pesticides.
Critical look at the plate in front of you! But, once a week at least, (if possible at the end of the week), try the adventure of the dinner without background noise. No TV, no mobile phones !!! Debriefing assured! Round the table of the news of each one in a relaxed way. The stories come out if this parenthesis has a small rule of the game: the time of this meal, be less authoritative: let talk, revive the debate, approach the next vacation …
All this may seem obvious, especially in France where it is more a tradition that holds up more than anywhere else… But more and more often, everyone opens the fridge, serves and nibbles in his room.
For sure. Try this adventure of everyday life : you will learn, so many things about your children’ thoughts !
