Family mealtime question
MrsHughesNC
member
Several months ago, we started to have Holly eat dinner at the same time as us (she used to eat before us). Often times we'll sit her down to eat right as I'm finishing up making our dinner. She might be eating something different, or maybe I'll give her some milk and crackers while she's waiting. Sometimes she finishes dinner first, sometimes we all finish at the same time. Sometimes she starts farting around and throwing food while we're still eating.
Should I make her sit in her highchair, at the table with us, until we're all finished? If she's throwing food, after I exhaust all redirection attempts, I'll remove her tray. I've been making her wait until we're finished to take her out of her chair (which will just typically be like 5 minutes or so). If her tray isn't there, she wants down immediately. I don't want her to think that if she's ready to get down, all she has to do is throw food. But I don't want to force her to stay seated if that's not helping establish boundaries or anything.
Thoughts?
Re: Family mealtime question
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We do try to make him wait until we are all finished. I ask him if he can wait just a few more minutes while mommy and daddy finish eating (what good that does, haha) and then we usually hurry and finish up. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We will play more and make silly faces to keep him entertained while he is sitting there and I do take away the food from his tray with so we can stop the windshield wiper action.
If he gets too impatient and actually starts fussing or climbing and I can tell he is really at the end of his rope for being patient I will go ahead and call it a meal and get him out.
I think it is important that he start learning that we all eat together and finish together (or wait on each other), but I don't expect him to just know so I treat it like anything else and call it a learning experience for him. One day he will get it and we will all eat and finish together, but for now I am happy that sometimes it works even if not 100% of the time, I say just keep trying
We don't allow farting at the table
Seriously though, we eat dinner as a family, and I don't force the issue. He goes through spells where he doesn't want to sit any longer after he's done and I just let him down. Then he usually plays with his kitchen (which is in the kitchen with us) while we finish. I just don't fight the battle, and after awhile he grows out of that and then sits with us again. It comes and goes. I figure it's alot to ask them to sit with us that long, especially if we let him get started before we sat down.
This is what we do. C will usually take longer to eat than us, but if he does finish early, we let him get down. As a kid we did not have to stay at the table until everyone was done, and I don't expect C to stay there the whole time.
DD usually finishes around the same time. But if for some reason she starts throwing food, I take away the food on her tray and make her sit there (with the tray in place). If she starts screaming, I would prob let her down. But usually she's just fussy and squirmy and I just explain that I took her food away b/c she can't throw it and that she needs to sit there until we're done (which realistically is not much longer).HTH!