Each night the same question arises, “What’s for dinner?” Now, I love cooking, mostly baking, but the never-ending need to provide a meal each night for 6-8 people was starting to feel like too much. The need to make sure it’s nourishing. Making sure none of the people eating it hated any aspect. It’s a lot of pressure. I’ve also began trying to eliminate some things from my diet for health reasons. It all added up to me being sick of meal planning each week. I was talking to a mom who shared that when her kids were growing up they each had a night to make a meal.
I have 5 kids at home, so I decided they would each have a night to plan and prepare a meal. That leaves 2 nights where I’m in charge of figuring things out. That’s a lot less overwhelm 🙂
Goals:
I had some goals when I initiated this plan:
- No more planning 7 dinners a week
- Less complaining from my children about what’s for dinner.
I received a few unexpected bonuses and I am so grateful I have added this to our weekly routine.
- 1 on 1 time with each child
- My children are learning a great life skill.
- Each child feels important & special when it’s their turn (okay maybe more so for the younger than the older).
1. Less Planning
I help the kids decide what they want to make for the family each week. I have had to encourage them to pick something different than last week, we’ve eaten a lot of Chicken Alfredo. I’ve also had to help them choose to add veggies and know we can’t just eat treats, there are boundaries. One kid declared we should have filet mignon every week. That sounds great but it isn’t realistic for us.
2. Less Complaining
The complaining hasn’t decreased as much as I would have hoped. They still find things to complain about. They are still complaining about each other’s choices as much as they did mine. So we’re having lots of conversations about being grateful. I recently heard about a mom that declared if any one child complained about a meal the next day would be a “Grateful Day”. They would have only water and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have considered implementing this for our family to squash the entitlement in my children.
Added Bonuses
1 on 1 time
I get to spend time with my children one on one. Having 6 children makes this difficult, so I am very grateful for this bonus. I am sharing one of my favorite things, cooking, with my favorite people. This gives us time to chat and I get a deeper glimpse of who they are. This is probably my favorite benefit.
Great Life Skills
My children are learning a great life skill. We all need to eat multiple times a day. I am happy to know they will have basic cooking skills and recipes to make their favorite meals. We cook for a (relatively) large family; therefore, they are, by default, learning to cook large enough amounts for friends too. (Bonus within a bonus 🙂 )
Feeling Special
Each child feels special & important as they take their turn planning and preparing. This may be more true for my younger children than my older children. I really enjoy getting to know their favorites and seeing their hearts as they learn to think about what other people like and don’t like.
Our family has evolved quite a bit on this journey over the last thirteen years. When our older kids were younger we would do “make your own stinking” dinner night. Each person made their own meal, a lot of it was reinventing or reheating leftovers. The boys loved this creative outlet, the girl didn’t like it as much. The boys had lots of interesting food, mostly quesadillas. The older girl has told me that she does enjoy learning to make some of her favorite meals as we do the weekly planning.
I have spent lots of time cooking with the second boy. It was just the two of us for almost six years. He loved to help me cook and bake. He has always been Mr. Independent. At 3, I couldn’t keep him away from the knives, no matter what I tried. So I taught him how to properly use a knife. I figured if he was going to get into them, he was going to know how to safely use them.
As I became pregnant with his younger siblings, I was able to have him help me with cooking the raw meat. Handling raw meat made me nauseous, he was willing and able to step in and take care of it for me. I was and am so grateful!
The weekly making of dinner with my children has been a huge blessing! Food also happens to be my love language 😉
What’s your love language? How can you share it with your children?
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Family Meal Planning
Meet Melinda!
Melinda is a Christian, a wife, and a mom of 6. She has a blended family and has spent much time trying to learn how to "mom". She's still not perfect, but it makes her that much more grateful for God's grace and mercy in her life.