If I had to name a challenge we deal with in our family at meal times, it wouldn’t be lack of trying foods.  It wouldn’t picky eating.  It wouldn’t be poor manners.

What it would be: non-stop talking at meals paired with distractions.  I’ve always seen that as just a way that my kids are.  They like to talk, which is totally normal when you’re 3, 5 and 7.  But I felt like it impacted meals and that they would take a long time to eat.

After my conversation I was lucky enough to have with Kaitlyn, who specializes in working with family on creating positive mealtimes, I look at all the talking differently.  Kaitlyn encouraged in our episode to look at mealtime as a time for connection, and less about the food.  She praised how amazing it is that siblings want to talk to each other, and that was such a lightbulb moment for me.

Yes, that is amazing! What a blessing that they’re so excited to share, talk and connect!

Since that lightbulb moment, I’ve been reminding myself and Jacob that we are at dinner for connection.  The conversations are the focus, and the food is just a part of it, but not all of it.  The kids still eat the same around of food.  They still talk the same amount.  But the pressure is off of us worrying that they need to eat more and talk less.

Friends, it was a game changer lightbulb moment in the podcast!

There were so many good nuggets of information in this episode, I am so excited for you to hear it too!

Create a positive mealtime routine and end mealtime struggles with Kaitlyn Jue

In episode 96 of Fit Mama Real Food Radio Kaitlyn Jue, an early childhood education specialist with a focus from birth through five, joins me to talk about how to create a positive mealtime routine and end mealtime struggles.  We have such an amazing conversation around mealtime routines and the division of responsibility model.  Kaitlyn answers listener questions around mealtime struggles, like how to get go of controlling how many bites a kid should eat, non-stop talking at meals, kids living off of carbs and how to let natural consequences of hunger teach kids about listening to their bodies.  I have already implemented some of the ideas we talked about in this podcast and it’s made mealtime so much more pleasant and connection focused.  I hope you learn a lot today too!

I would love to see what YOU learned. Take a screen shot of this episode, share it over on Instagram stories and tag me @fitmamarealfood so I can see what you learned in today’s episode!

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XO

Heather