A great family dinner in four hopeful steps
Every parent knows that gathering the family to a relaxed dinner with eye contact and conversation is easier said than done. Here’s an honest attempt to help you make it happen.
1. Make dinner important
Try to make dinner stand out from the rest of the day. Involve the family in the preparations. Cook together when you can. Motivate your children by giving them responsibility for laying the table or deciding the menu. (If they want to bring some friends, an extendable INGATORP will do the trick.)
2. Give your table setting some TLC
Eating at a set table makes all the difference. Why use your weekend dinnerware only on weekends? Add place mats, patterned napkins, double plates, a nice salad bowl. Small changes to make dinner a bit more formal, but also more festive.
3. Savor the moment
How was everybody’s day? Any weekend plans? When (and if) you get the family talking, try to stretch the moment. With a board game or music quiz – like here with a LUSTIG wheel and an ENEBY bluetooth speaker – you may even lose track of time altogether.
4. The extra precautions
Creating a midweek bubble of calm is a challenge for anyone, let alone a whole family. Still, a fair guess is that letting your mobile devices take a dinner nap in a STOCKSUND bench (or simply out of reach) won’t hurt.