About book The Family Dinner: Great Ways To Connect With Your Kids, One Meal At A Time (2010)
I really liked this book, enough so that I bought a used copy of it for future reference (I initially checked it out from the library). I know the importance of the family dinner already, so I didn't really need to be persuaded about that, but I was looking for suggestions on how to make it happen more often and to make it a richer experience. The adults at our house are usually tired and stressed out at the end of the day, and while I generally make dinner at home and we all eat together (if my husband can get home from work in time), we often end up on the couch in front of the TV. If we do manage to eat at the table, it is like pulling teeth to get any meaningful/thoughtful conversation going. What I liked best about the book was the idea that dinner conversation can be fun, not grueling. =]Laurie David gives some excellent ideas about questions you can ask or things you can read (like poetry or a provocative news story from the paper) during dinner that can start conversation rolling and they were all, pretty much, appealing and things I think my guys will find fun or interesting. She also encourages you, since you are all around the table chatting anyway, to just follow up dinner with some kind of game, board or otherwise. Well, duh. I hadn't actually thought of that, but obviously I should have. It definitely seems more possible if I can get everyone while they are already together before they can escape to their respective screens. Beyond that, she had some great ideas for making at least one dinner each week a little extra special. She based the idea on a Shabbat gratitude dinner, and in my mind it roughly translates to something like a Thanksgiving dinner, but on a smaller scale. It reminded me of Sunday dinners we used to have at my grandparents, but with more conversation and with a greater emphasis on the good in our lives. It seemed like an excellent way to encourage dinner to be more leisurely and to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to recognize the importance of things they might otherwise take for granted and to express their gratitude for them. I can totally see us doing that every Saturday or Sunday when we can take the time to invest a little more in preparation.Tied into the idea of gratitude is the idea of saying grace. The author does a great job providing multiple examples of blessings or gratitudes or graces that you could use at the table. My husband is not a fan of organized religion, so saying grace isn't something he's ever been comfortable doing, but when we talked about her suggestions, he was enthusiastic about the idea. It's another way to remind our family that we are very fortunate and to say thank you for all the good things we have, including the dinner at our table.Additionally, Kirstin Uhrenholdt, who wrote the recipes for the book, also had some good ideas for ways kids can participate in the prep for dinner, the actually cooking, and the cleanup - something we struggle with. I am not sure how many of the recipes we'll actually use, but the ideas behind them were helpful.I definitely finished the book feeling that daily dinner at the table was worth the effort to get everyone away from the TV, and that without much extra effort, it could be way more fun for everyone than it has been lately. I am inspired! I had to renew this one from the library the full three possible times because it had great recipes. The best part is that the author gives ideas for making large meals, then tweaking the leftovers from them just enough a day or two later to make a completely new meal in no time at all.I think I'll even check this one out again next week, just after I returned it, as there're still some good-looking recipes I haven't even gotten to yet.
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Filled to the brim with easy and fun ideas to make family dinnertime special! I'm buying this one.
—Less99
