What, No Talking!?!
A few weeks ago my family had a crazy week. I have two kids-6 and almost 9 and they both have various activities like so many kids do these days. But this one week really bothered me because there was not one night during the week that we were able to sit down and eat dinner together. We were running around, one kid ate at 4 and the other at 6-I went one way and when my hubs got home he went another.
Thankfully for us this is not the norm and my husband and I are both on the same page about how important our family time, including meal time is to us. So that crazy week was a good reminder of how much I value that time with my kids and my husband.
Then earlier this week I saw a study and it said that ⅓ of families surveyed don’t speak at dinner. Even though it was done in the UK, I have a feeling that the US is very similar, if not worse. What stuck with me is that some families are actually getting the time to sit down together, which can be rare for some as the survey shows, but don’t know what to talk about. Are we now a society that can’t connect….are we struggling to make personal connections with our families? I sure hope not.
Are you struggling to make dinner conversations happen? Check out these suggestions, what do you do already? What can you do more of?
Some ideas to get the conversation started at the dinner table.
- Sit down together-at the same time
- Take a break from homework
- Put phones away
- Turn off the TV
- Discuss the happenings of the day
- Make conversation cards-put topics on cards and place in the middle of the table for one family members to select
- Find out what interests your family members and learn more about it
We are far from perfect at our dinner table and we need reminders all the time but it is so important that we don’t give up. This time can help build those connections with our family members.
What suggestions do you have to help keep conversations happening at the dinner table?
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