Dinner is not about what’s being served.

“But wait… aren’t you meal planning mommies? Isn’t that your goal? To have a plan about what is going to be served  for dinner?”

Yes and No.

Alisha and I have said before that we are not culinary chefs. We don’t spend hours in the kitchen every day. Our meals are not ones you would see featured in magazines and we try to use pretty standard ingredients. The goal of our meal planning is to encourage a family dinner time atmosphere. We know that without a dinner plan in place, family time around the table will become more stressful or may stop all together with family members scrounging for food themselves.

If meal planning is a struggle for you because you don’t like to cook, then focus on your reason for planning in the first place; your family and time together. These are precious moments with your kids to talk. At the dinner table there is no t.v., no phone (if phones are an issue read my post about the Tech free dinner table), no computers, newspapers or books to take our attention away from our little one’s faces.

There are numerous articles out there with statistics on families eating dinner together and the long term affects it has on kids. Most of them say the same thing: Having routine dinner times around the table as a family is good for you: body, soul and mind.

This is one of my favorite articles from the Washington Post that points out what our kids gain from family dinner times  from young ones learning to talk to teenagers.  (Click on the title below to go to the article from the Washington Post)

The most important thing you can do with your kids? Eat dinner with them.

Do you notice a difference in the attitudes of your kids when you make family dinner time a priority regularly vs. skipping dinners at the table?