Staying Sane While Raising Your Teens

Dinner Time is a Great Time to Talk

August 23, 2023 at 5:42 pm Leave a comment

Now that the school year has started, I think about the conversations that my family and I had. We didn’t have them every night, but considering how strict my parents were, our dinner time talks were pretty liberal.

They didn’t always include both parents, and the “talks” continued once my parents divorced. Usually my mother, would start the “conversation” for whatever topic my brother, sister and I, wanted to talk about. Usually it was a cross-section of just about anything from politics to what time curfew should be; most important, there were no taboo topics.

The beauty about the talks is that everybody extroverts and introverts (my brother and me) felt comfortable talking. By the way, if you have kids who don’t like to talk a lot, then you say things that are funny or related but slightly crazy, and see what your family thinks. Hopefully everybody starts laughing and all of a sudden the dinner time talking has started.

I think what I like most about conversations during meals, is that you have the distraction of eating and the conversations don’t seem as serious.

Depending on your parenting style, these conversations are a great time to learn more about your children and for them to learn about you as well, and to help you pick up on things that you will want to follow up on privately with whichever kid needs it, as well as sharing your views and family values.

There are lots of benefits to dinner time talk. At the very least, it helps you stay connected (with your kids), if you allow the conversations to flow easily. The more obvious reason is hopefully your child will more easily share concerns or issues with you, that are not easy to talk about. 🙇🏽‍♀️

If the best time to have a conversation with your your kids, is at breakfast, then talk at breakfast. 🥞☕️

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C. Lynn Williams, #MsParentguru

Parent Coach, Author & Speaker

www.clynnwilliams.com

Entry filed under: #Back2School, #StaySane, adolescents, conversations, daughter, dinner time, father, mom, mothers, parent coach, Parenting, parenting, parents, relationship.