De-Stress at the Table

So you’ve done it. You followed our advise a few months back and you’ve brought the family back to the dinner table. But now you find that you have heartburn after every meal. Your family dinner time may need a little fine tuing. WebMD has these tips and more on how you can de-stress at the dinner table:

1. Turn Down the Volume.

Nothing brings down the stress level like turning down the volume of your environment.

“That means no cell phones, no TV, and no radios blaring in the background, and it means not answering the phone during mealtime,” says Ekroth.

What should be in the background? Soft, soothing music is an instant stress buster.

Ekroth suggests letting each family member contribute suggestions about what to play, or letting a different person pick the music for each meal. If you have a CD burner, a good family project is creating an hour of dinner music that includes everyone’s favorite relaxing tunes.

Family Values at the Dinner Table

The Crunchy Domestic Goddess put out a challenge to all moms in September: give your children presence. In the 50’s parents would give their children presence around the dinner table, asking them questions about their day and sharing their thoughts. It seems that those days are gone. Accept the challenge and figure out how to spend quality time with your kids.

What if there was one thing you could do to lessen the likelihood that your child would get involved with smoking, drinking or doing drugs; lessen his/her chance of developing obesity; and help him/her do better in school? What if that thing was as simple as having regular family dinners together?