Reply to Do you eat dinner with your toddlers/as a family?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us.  It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.[/quote]

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?  [/quote]

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry. [/quote]

I’m the PP who asked the question.  I am also the parent with the DH who does shift work who posted above. I don’t believe in those things either.

I put one meal on the table, but I include enough variety that I know my kids will find enough food that they like.  It may not be food that excites them, but there are always things they’ll eat in the mix, and they take what they will.  They have never left the table hungry, although there are certainly days like today when my youngest filled up on milk, rice, sliced apples and didn’t touch the stir fry I had made.

For me, given how I feel about not forcing, family dinners have worked well.  I think that serving a stir fry that no one ate would be depressing to me and would feel like pressure to my kids, even if I planned to eat it later.  I also think my kids benefit from smelling it and seeing it on the table even if they don’t taste it.

To be clear, we also have days when chicken nuggets (those dreaded chicken nuggets LOL) are on the table, that just didn’t happen to be tonight.

I am not saying that you should do what I do, just that you can serve meals family style without forcing or pressuring your kids to eat, or threatening them with hunger.
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