Reflecting on kid night… I’d love to hear if any of you tried kid night in any way, shape or form. I think the key is just giving the kids some control, whatever that looks like. And some light heartedness around dinner. Let’s be honest, many of us just want to get kids fed so we can get them to bed and have a moment to ourselves. And they know! They can tell we are rushing through a predetermined plan which ends with being rid of them, so as soon as we start even talking about supper, they know their day is over and nothing fun will happen from here on. And they dig in their heels – they won’t come to the table, they won’t eat, they complain about bathing, they refuse pajamas (or in one particularly stubborn case around here, diapers) and so on…

Dinner can be fun and stunningly the ‘witching hour’ can be easier. I can even tell you my boys both slept better after kid night! This could be a coincidence, but I somehow think the lighter, more playful, loving atmosphere of the evening played at least some part.  But it is certainly not always easy to full of a ‘fun’ evening when you’d really rather stick pins in your eyes! We are all tired, parents and kids, and yet I think if we rally and have one last bit of fun together, the whole evening is easier on all of us. As parents, we have to forget the rush and the schedule for just a little while, we have to be a bit creative and lot loving, and we have to pull the kids into our team and get them to join our crazy little game. But how do we do this? And how often can we really expect this of ourselves?!

I’ve loved hearing ideas from you, and from our ongoing conversations. Here are a few…

• Giving the kids (1) a feeling of choice – this could be giving them real choices, “I have chicken or pork buns, what would you like for dinner?” or a sense of choice ,  “We’re having soup tonight; where would you like to sit for dinner?” or  “Would you like it in bowls or cups?” –
• (2) Involving kids in dinner prep – chopping, mixing, measuring  for a meal or  something like making pizza together, which gives them some choice and some hands on time together in the kitchen
• Involving them in other ways by (3) having them draw flags for the table to match the cuisine, making a restaurant name sign for the place they are eating tonight, or writing up a menu.
• Meals that (4) offer some choice can be constructed at the table can also be great – burgers, tacos, wraps, sushi.
• We also had a (5) group supper night going for a while where a few moms met once a week, with kids, and took turns to prepare a simple meal. The group dynamic, and peer pressure, often helped get kids to try new things, plus they were exposed to other families favorite foods and traditions.

There are many fun strategies if we can somehow make the time and find the energy! We will continue to try things and see how it goes. But you can be sure there will be many nights where we make sandwiches, or just toast, and virtually fling them at our offspring before flinging said offspring into bed… And of course there will be times when we really try and the kids just aren’t into it. I nearly lost it last night when trying to involve the kids in decisions about dinner and getting solidly ignored. I finally blasted out “I’m trying to give you a choice here and if you don’t answer, you will just get whatever I decide!” to which the calm response was, “I just won’t eat it then.” Pretty clear. So I guess choice or involvement of some kind really do matter.

What works for your family?