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Back to School Tips for Family Meals

Congratulations! This is an excellent time of year. Along with resolutions and hopes, new notebooks and clothes, we also have calendars with bright empty spaces. This is the time to schedule in family meals.

Busy families know that, if you write something into your schedule, you create expectations. Before you know it, those expectations have grown into habits.

Try to be both optimistic and realistic about how many shared meals you can expect from your family each week. Don't schedule after-school activities or work commitments during those times. Monitor your community and social calendars.

When you are signing up for activities, think about only committing to those that really count, are truly rewarding. If you find that things are scheduled in ways that make it difficult to share family meals, let your school community, your work community, and your friends know your concerns. Most of them will share your desire to balance family life with all the other conflicting demands. Many will be grateful to you for raising the subject.

This is the time to physically take control of your calendar. If you use an electronic calendar, you may find it helpful to print out the current week or month, and post it in a public spot. Or choose from a variety of family calendar types: large or small, weekly or monthly, magnetic or not. Whiteboard, chalkboard, electronic or paper — use what works for you.

You can also get or make templates for chore lists, for shopping lists, for recipe rotations.

A calendar is both an object and a commitment. It is a statement to your family — this is who we are, this is what we value, this is what we do.

Once you have made time for the meals, think about how you can work smarter to make them happen more easily. Assign tasks, and make sure that they get done. Find short cuts to help you spend less time shopping, cooking, or cleaning up, and then put those short cuts in place. Take a good look at your cupboards, refrigerator and freezer. Plan to keep staples on hand to let you produce simple meals with a minimum of last-minute fuss. Arrange your shopping more efficiently, both in terms of time and productivity.

If you set up good systems and habits now, they can help you carry through your good intentions through the school year.

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