How to Ease Dinner Time Stress

Dinner time is usually a stressful time for parents with preparation and finding dishes that toddlers will eat. Dinner time should be a time where stress is non-existent; parents know that is not always possible, below I have included some tips to ease dinner time stress.

Eat and prepare dinner at a specific time. If you establish a routine on when dinner will be served you don't have to worry about children complaining about being hungry and wanting to fill up on the first thing in sight. So establish a time when you want your family to eat and start the preparations 3 hours before that time. If you have spent a lot of your day out as soon as you get in began cooking.

Give them a Snack- Give your children a nutritious snack an hour before dinner time, to stall their hunger cravings. The snack should be small, light, and yet a bit fulfilling. Try yogurt with some granola, a piece of fruit, or a few crackers and some juice. When you give your children the snack, send them upstairs to play or let them eat their snack while watching a little bit of a movie or a television show, or while coloring, or finger painting. This way the children will be too occupied to even notice their hunger cravings.
Remember that smaller children have tiny tummies that don't take much to fill, so police the portion size of the snack and juice that you give them. Try not to let them fill up on empty calories from sources such as soda, or junk food. Limit the juice, because when hungry toddlers will attempt to fill up on juice.

Ask the children what they want for dinner, so that you can make it for them, and if you are eating something completely different make extra because chances are they will want what you eat. When preparing food for younger children like toddlers, prepare a variety of foods in small portions. Typically older kids are easier to feed than toddlers. If you present toddlers with multiple food choices you will limit the possibility of having to discard the single meal that you slaved over only to have to prepare another meal which may get rejected as well. Think of all the food your toddler enjoys to eat, and make some of it.