Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters is a blog series by parents and dietitians whose stories and advice reminds us that we can overcome the challenges of feeding children. Subscribe to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.

My husband and I are expecting our first child this summer and I am a planner (probably an over planner). Both my husband and I grew up eating dinner every night sitting down at the table together. This is something that we still do –even though it’s just the two of us. The television is always off and it’s our time to connect at the end of the day.

From time to time we have friends over or go to friend’s homes for dinner and I have noticed that the art of sitting around the table or “family meals” is something of the past. This has me wondering about family traditions and being involved in my child’s life.

My husband and I plan to sit down at the table and have meals as a family, but what will this time look like? Will we scarf down our food and rush on to the next task? Will we really enjoy this time and relish the few moments we have together? Will our kids think that we are “squares” because we will eat at the table without the television on?

As parents who plan to work fulltime I can’t expect all family meals to be monumental—sometimes it may be a very simple meal. But I also know that those 20 minutes can be packed with fun and love. Sometimes all we need is 20 minutes at the end of the day to re-energize.

Here are a few tips that I have collected from fellow moms:

     -Have your children help cook (If they made it, they are more likely to eat it)
     -Don’t stress if they don’t like everything you feed them
     -Make tasting new foods fun and exciting, like having a drum roll before trying a new food
     -Don’t join the “clean plate club” - provide nourishing meals and let your child choose what to eat
     -Turn off the television during meal time

Try introducing conversation topics that will get your children engaging in meaningful conversations:

     -What is your favorite meal?
     -What is your favorite book and why?
     -What is your favorite fruit?
     -If you could choose the dinner menu, what would it be?
     -Who is your best friend?
     -If you could have any superpower what would it be?
     -What is the best thing that happened to you today?

Looking back, family meals were the time where my family connected and relationships flourished. Now I am ready to carry on the tradition with my own growing family.

Subscribe to our Eat, Play, Love: Raising Healthy Eaters blog series to find ways to build lifelong healthy eating habits for your children.

For more tips and information on raising healthy eaters, follow @mealsmatter and the #eatplaylove hashtag on Twitter.

Alyssa McClelland, M.S.