Talkin’ About Family Meals

Ellie Wilson, MS, RDN Family time is precious and rare in our busy lives these days, but there is a big opportunity ensure your family is stronger and your children have the skills they need to navigate in our distracted, over-scheduled world – it is the simple, old-fashioned family meal that can nurture and protect them in very significant ways. We have been highlighting some easy power bowl meals all month to help you with the time/budget/#everyonelikesit part – now we have some fun tips on the table talk part. The simple act of chatting around a meal gives your children better social skills, and builds communication connections. Given how busy we all are, it is sometimes hard not to use that time to discuss chores, or grades, or sports. Those conversations are important, but maybe we can inspire you to finish with them rather than start. Help build your children’s confidence and emotional intelligence with some simple questions and conversation starters. Tip – have everyone put whatever phone/device they use on silent, and leave them in a basket in a different room until your mealtime clean-up is done. Play games when they are little, and get different topics going as they get older. Check out these ideas from our  Pinterest board!