Parents know that when you sit down for a meal at a table that also has your children seated at it… Well, there might not be that much ‘sitting’ involved – at least not for you.
Eating in the presence of your children involves a lot of cutting up things, and moving food on plates, so ‘they don’t touch’ and wiping spills and getting more ketchup. In general, getting to actually eat your own dinner, well, it can be a bit of a nightmare.
Which is why we are loving this mum’s clever meal-time hack – and why you will too.
Personally, my main problem with dinner-time in our house is that, often, by the time I get dinner on the table, I am famished myself. So, when the kids start asking for this and that and need help or spill something or refuse to even taste the tiniest bite of something, my overall patience and mood for dealing with this kind of s**t is pretty much at zero.
And this was the case, it seems for mum Dana Hewitt too, who reckons that in the space of of an average meal at home, she gets up from the table at least five times – causing her to resent the dinner time and all the hassle it brought.
However, the clever mam came up with a nifty solution that is – put simply – genius.
“I’ve finally figured out the secret to dinnertime peace and I’m here to share the exciting news,” Hewitt wrote in an essay on Mom.me. “I eat my dinner, while it’s still hot, alone, before my family comes to the table.”
Yep, you read that correctly – this mam puts on her own oxygen mask first, so to speak, by feeding herself first, so that she in turn can feed the kids.
“Imagine that — eating before the kids. It’s a glorious time where I can actually enjoy the food I prepared and chew it like a human being. Not only is dinner still warm but it helps me eat healthier, too. I’m not missing anything, I’m not being the dinnertime martyr.”
She explains further:
“We still gather around the table all together. We still talk about our day. We still make dumb jokes and laugh at them. We still talk about table manners and why talking with your mouth full is kind of gross. The change allows me to feed my baby from his own plate instead of mine, enjoy the time together instead of feeling sorry for myself and better provide my kids with the things they need around dinnertime. I’m much happier to get up for this or that, or clean up a mess, when I’m not hangry.”
