Over at the Happy Christian blog today I give six tips on how to get the most out of family dinner. Here’s an encouraging video by Bruce Feiler on the same subject that you might want to watch as well. His research-based tips include:
- Having kids set the table or help you prepare dinner makes them work together on a task. This increases bonding and reduces the likelihood of fights at the table.
- To increase communication at the table, play “Bad and Good” where everyone, including the parents, say what bad thing happened to them and then what good thing happened that day.
- Talk about your family history. The number one predictor of a child’s emotional well-being is a knowledge of their family history.
- Talk about your failures in order to prepare them for the difficult times and help them get through them.
- The biggest pitfall is allowing devices at the table.
- Pitfall number two is parents do too much of the talking. The research shows parents do two-thirds of the talking at dinnertime. That should be closer to 50% maximum.
Pingback: Web Wanderings ~ February 24, 2015