Results tagged “family meal” from Momtourage: Need Advice?

Try a half-and-half meal: buy half the dinner at a fast-food place, and make the other half with food from home. For example, go through the drive-thru, buy everyone's favorite sandwich, skip the fries, bring the food home and serve it with a fruit plate, salad or vegetable dish that you prepare.

Your child should be able to sit through an entire meal by the time she's seven or eight. When she's younger, she can sit for a portion of the meal. If she gets fussy and restless, you can excuse her from the table. It works well if you set up a play area near the table so you can keep track of her and so you can expose her to the social interactions at the dinner table.

Actually your job is to serve a balanced diet. It is your son's job to eat it. You started off just fine by serving broccoli along with his favorite pasta or bread. The trouble began when you got into a power struggle. The meal was ruined at that point. And that's a shame, because all of us--moms, dads and children--need the pleasure of a family meal a lot more than we need a bite of broccoli.