The Book of New Family Traditions by Meg Cox Read Free Book Online Page B

plus apple juice for the kids. Her three children love the casual party atmosphere and seeing all their friends.

Family Dinner Rules
An Excerpt from The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time, by Laurie David, with recipes by Kirstin Uhrenholdt (Grand Central, 2010)
This book is a treasure box for any parent who ever wanted to get the most mileage out of family dinners. In addition to clever and doable recipes by Kirstin Uhrenholdt, a young Danish woman hired to help cook meals for the David household in Los Angeles, there is a great deal of practical information about getting family members to truly connect around the dinner table. An essential element of what has made family dinners so satisfying for Laurie David’s family is the list of ten rules by which everyone abides. Here is a streamlined version of that list from her book. I was already doing many of these, but I have adopted her suggestion to always have a pitcher of water on the table and am delighted to see my son reaching for that rather than pulling juice or milk from the fridge.
 
“Ten Simple Steps to Successful Family Dinners”
Step One: It’s a Date!
Laurie David (yes, she is the former wife of TV writer-star Larry David) is a big believer in having a set time for dinner. It saves a lot of nagging and reminding, and just gets built into everyone’s schedule.
Step Two: Everyone Comes to the Table at the Same Time
“Even if you don’t eat, you still have to participate (in my experience, the nonhungry participants usually forget they weren’t hungry and end up eating the whole meal,” says Laurie. (You can tell she has two daughters and no sons!)
Step Three: No Phones
“No ringing, vibrating, answering, or texting allowed.”
Step Four: One Meal, No Substitutions
“Be prepared for initial stubbornness and a few uneaten meals, but the phase won’t last long.”
Step Five: Everyone Tries Everything
“The rigid insistence in the old days on eating all of your vegetables only accomplished one thing—it turned kids into stealth veggie Houdinis....
Tasting everything is an important rule. It shows respect to whomever prepared the food and respect for yourself. Why not give your taste buds an opportunity to be pleasantly surprised?”
Step Six: No Television
“Your kids will argue with you that they can do three things at the same time (watch TV, eat, and listen closely to your every word, maybe even IM [instant messaging], too!), but it doesn’t matter. Here’s the good news: On special occasions, the television is invited to dinner and as a result of the novelty, it is a really fun treat.”
Step Seven: Tap Water Only, Filtered If Needed
“Serve it cold and preferably from a filtered tap in a clear glass pitcher. Garnish with slices of lemon, lime, cucumber, oranges, apples or sprigs of mint. Adding whole fresh or frozen strawberries, raspberries or blueberries to their glasses makes kids want to drink even more water in their attempts to reach the berry treasure at the bottom!”
Step Eight: Friends and Family Welcome
“I always encourage my kids to invite their friends and even their friends’ parents to dinner. ‘The more the merrier’ really puts everyone in a happy mood at the table, and everyone is on their best behavior, too.”
Step Nine: You’re Excused
At the David’s house, no one leaves the table until after dessert. Laurie says she believes that having a final little segment to the meal resolves unfinished business and brings a second act to the meal. She says she doesn’t do a big dessert every night, but that the end of her meals can mean sharing orange slices, or even just cups of tea.
Step Ten: Everyone Helps Clean Up
“No exceptions. It’s more fun and cleanup is faster when everyone chips in.”

    Hello and Good-Bye Rituals
    Looking up and suddenly realizing that Mommy and Daddy have simply disappeared can be traumatic for a toddler. Are they gone forever? Although it can take a little