Creating Calm Mealtimes
In today’s episode, we continue our series with Meagan Rose Wilson, a parent
educator, author, and mother of four. Meagan has supported hundreds of parents to create a
strong family rhythm unique to their own values and culture and, today, she applies her expertise to the subject of mealtimes. We discuss how to make mealtimes calmer and how
to instill more intention into the experience to help it become the most treasured part of the day. You’ll find out how to cultivate and enrich your relationship and your children’s relationship with food and how to nurture this through gardening, and Meagan explains the value of meal planning to save time and reduce stress, providing a number of helpful meal and snack ideas. Listen in to learn how to model the type of behavior you expect, teach table manners, keep small children seated at the table for the duration of the meal, and stimulate and encourage the types of conversation you want to have at the dinner table. Establishing mealtime rituals can create a sense of calm and reverence, so make sure to tune in to discover some of the rituals that work for us!
Key Points From This Episode:
• An introduction to the series with Meagan and how it ties into the Waldorf philosophy.
• Today’s topic: instilling family mealtimes with calmness, intention, ritual, and reverence.
• How to nurture a child's relationship with food through gardening.
• Why Meagan doesn’t believe in demonizing or banning any one specific ingredient.
• The value of meal planning to save time and reduce stress.
• Meagan provides a number of meal and snack ideas.
• How we can bring greater mindfulness to mealtimes and create more calm at the dinner table.
• Tips for creating rituals to set the tone for the meal.
• How to stimulate and encourage appropriate conversation in small children.
• How to model the type of behavior you expect at the dinner table.
• Some ideas for some other mealtime rituals you can create.
• Advice for teaching table manners; the importance of modeling.
• Methods for keeping children seated at the table for the meal, such as the candle ritual.
