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5 TIPS for TAKING BACK YOUR DINNER TABLE · In 9 Minutes

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: If you had a dollar for every time you heard yourself or someone else say I don't have time for that, you'd probably be rich.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I know life can feel like a circus, especially when you're trying to juggle it all, and I know what it's like to be pulled in a million different directions and to feel like there's never enough time to do all the things for all the people.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: But I really believe that what you want is possible.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: It just requires some decision making and intentional action.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: You truly can't make time or find time.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: You have to set it apart, and I'll show you how to make big moves and take game changing action nine minutes at a time.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I'm Jennifer Seiss.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I love helping impact-oriented women run their home life and business, gain traction in their day to day and have more time with the people they love the most.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: My heart is to share what I've learned along the way and help you get more of what you want out of your life and work.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Every episode is designed to get you on your way to a quick win.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: So grab your favorite beverage, pull up a chair and let's start making more of your time.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the In 9 Minutes podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Jennifer Seiss, and I can't wait to connect with you for the next nine minutes.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Today I'm answering another listener question and the first one was all about meal prep and planning, and today we are going to navigate handling picky eaters.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: My listener who wrote in asked how do I deal with a picky eater at my dinner table?
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: What is your best advice to help with that?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And I love this subject so much because I know all about picky eaters from personal experience and figuring out what to do can be very exhausting and frustrating and I am going to help you sort of keep the piece at the dinner table, because the dinner table is meant to be a place of conversation and connection, and that's what we really worked for in our family, and it took some putting down our pride.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: It took some decision making and I can't wait to dive into this subject with you today.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Growing up, I was one of those kids who had Battle of the Wheels at the dinner table, and one of the reasons was because we had to have the clean plate club, so we had to eat everything on our plate, no matter what.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Whether we were hungry, whether we were full, whether we liked it, it didn't matter.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: The plate had to be empty and we needed to be a member of the clean plate club, which is not a fun club to be in when there are things like wax beans on the plate and wax beans yes, w-a-x, like wax as in candle.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Those are terrible and they taste like they sound.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: And the dinner table growing up was often a fight and a battle and I knew I did not want my dinner table to feel that way.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I did not want it to be all about the food and not enough about the people.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: But it's so easily creeps in when we're trying to teach our kids to try new things and like new things and we think because we like it, they should like it and all of the things that come into play, and you can just fill your mind with everything about what it's like to battle at the dinner table.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And I love feeding people, especially my family, but I do not love a dinner table that feels like a battleground and dinner time can be filled with lots of challenges and, as I mentioned before, our pride and our own strong will can rear its ugly head before we even realize it and it's happening over a green bean or a piece of spinach and that's just silly.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: It's just silly and you don't even realize what's happening until you're in this big argument over eating that one green bean.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: And so today I'm going to share five tried and true tips with you for taking back the dinner table so it can be a place of conversation and connection for your family, and some of these tips might be great.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: If your kids are good at trying new things, they might try new things in a whole different way with some of these tips.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So let's dive in.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I do want to share one quick note, and a good reminder when you're kind of creating a plate for people is that we do eat with our eyes.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: White colors are appealing, and if you can try to have one bright element on the plate, like berries or even a bright vegetable, they might not eat it, but they will approach the plate differently.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: So here is tip number one.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Tip number one is called the no thank you bite, and everyone at the table needs to try one bite of everything on their plate.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: They don't like it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: The only acceptable comment is no thank you.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: It's that simple.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: And then you can move on, and we'll move on to tip number two.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: When you kind of use this tool with your kids and family members.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: It's really good because it multiplies when they are outside of your house.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: So when they're at a friend's house and something comes up on the plate in front of them, they're not going to be like, oh, I don't like that.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: They can say no, thank you, and they've already practiced it and navigated that at your house.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: The next thing is because you are not a short order cook.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: This is tip number two.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: They make their own meal replacement.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You give them two options and that's it.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: In our house it was a peanut butter sandwich or a turkey sandwich.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Well, that gets old really fast and with our boys that worked to our advantage.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: One of our kids would eat things like eel and all these crazy things when he was really little.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: My other one was more like me when it came to the dinner table and was a little more reserved and picky about trying new things, and now we both literally eat anything.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So they make their own meal replacement.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It can be a bowl of cereal or something like that, and don't worry, there was.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: They had fruit and other options so that they weren't just eating a sandwich for dinner.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Tip number three is include something that your kids like with every meal, even if it's just some fruit, doesn't have to be a big deal.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: It can be some fruit, a little bit of pasta or something like that.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Because when kids see something they like on the plate, they're less distracted by what they might not like and they're more likely to try something new.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: And this one is a big one because if they love pasta, then that's a perfect time to try a new protein that goes along with the pasta, and that's the perfect time to, if they love salad, try adding grilled chicken to it.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Grilled meat is something that they've kind of poked their nose at, and things like that.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Number four a little sauce goes a long way.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: If you pay attention to the types of food, especially the sauces that your kids like at meal times, this can be a game changer, because one of our kids loves soy sauce, and he still does, and so over time I made every vegetable I could think of with a little bit of soy sauce, and after cooking them in soy sauce in big stir fries, I would start to pull back the soy sauce and eventually would make the vegetables he liked with soy sauce, grilled or roasted or sauteed, and he would eat them right up.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: The same thing works with dipping sauces.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Let them try it in a format that they're comfortable in, that they enjoy, that they're confident about, and then slowly pull it back and they will enjoy it just as much eventually, too.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: The last tip and this is probably a really, really big one and an important one to remember is if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, okay, because over time our taste buds change and our palates mature, and if your kids didn't like green beans or bananas a year ago, they might like them now, or they might like them in a different way.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: So be sure to offer your kids new opportunities to try foods they didn't love the first time around, and take the drama out of it and just let it be about them trying something new.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: If they don't like it, they can say no, thank you, and move on.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: We want to take the drama out of it so that the time around the table is all about connection and conversation.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: It's really, really important to remember that, because when we focus on the food more than the relationship with our kids, we have it kind of out of balance and it can be tricky.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Like I said and I've been there where you can feel your pride and your strong will kind of rear its ugly head because you want them to do what you're asking them to do, but really they need to learn to navigate that and they have different taste buds than you do.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: So give them the opportunity to make those choices in an honoring way, in a polite, respectful way, and then make sure you give them new opportunities to try foods that they didn't like in the past.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: It's really my prayer for you, as you put some of these tips into action at your dinner table, that it would become a place where trying new things becomes easier and more fun and a place where more time is spent talking to each other than about the food.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: And as your kids grow older, I pray that they'll look back and think about all of the conversations that your family had around the table and they're reminded of home and they want to go back to those times.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: So my episode about meal prep and meal planning, called plan as a four letter word, was aired on January 25th.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: If you want to go back and listen to that and kind of tag, team it in with some of these tips for taking back your dinner table and be mindful that you can build really intentional connection in small, short focus bursts of time like nine minutes, and really give some of these tips a try so that you can experience what the dinner table is meant to be about.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Here's to more time around the table and more connection.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Nine minutes at a time.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening today.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Do you have questions you'd love to ask, but don't because you aren't sure who to ask, or you'd rather not let the world in on not having it all together?
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I get it.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I get lots of questions all the time, from parenting to business development, to Bible study, recommendations to the best meal to serve a crowd and even how to navigate hard conversations.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: My husband and kids call me Google and since I'm a problem solver by nature and love research, it sort of fits.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: So I am so excited to answer your questions.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: You can share your questions with me by DMing me on Instagram at Jennifer Seiss and I'll answer your questions on an upcoming episode.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: So here's to more intentional connection and less grind.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Nine minutes at a time.