Deployment Tip #43 – Eat Together

Eating together everyday will connect you as a family. It will be an essential way of communicating with each other – sharing successes and failures, frustrations and triumphs and just talking together about yourselves, your dreams, frustrations and goals.

When you have an absent family member these meals are even more important as they will also be an opportunity for your family to talk about what they miss, what they are fed up with, what they are doing to cope, etc. making eating together as a family a top priority.

Make Meals Easier for Everyone By:

1 | Dinner should be around the same time each night so that everyone knows when they should be home – set a goal to eat at least one meal a day together as a family.

2 | Give everyone some responsibility with preparing or cleaning up after the meal and make sure they are well aware of what they are in advance.

3 | Always make double the amount you need and freeze it – this way you will have another meal ready to go the following week and a lot less dishes as all you had to do was defrost it (make sure you label it before it goes in the freezer).

4 | Plan the meals out on a Sunday night. If you plan out your meals a week in advance and write them on the calendar it will save a lot of arguments and extra trips to the store.

5 | Include family members in the planning of meals so that you avoid hearing things like: I don’t want that, I don’t like it, I never get to eat things I like (you will still hear those things but hopefully less often!).

6 | Only answer the phone during meal time if it might be your absent family member. Ban all cell phones and electronics from the table – let your family know that you require “face time” and so do they!

7 | Make breakfast for dinner (eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, etc.).

8 | Make an easy dinner of sandwiches, etc. and take it all to the park and eat there.

9 | Ask questions – for funny and thought provoking dinner conversation cards go to our website.

10 | Go around the table and ask each person to tell you about the worst and best thing that has happened to them in the day.

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