How to Make Meal Time a Collaborative Effort

Cooking meals can be a lot of fun, but when you are always responsible for it on your own, it can turn into a drag. Finding ways to turn mealtimes into a collaboration can make it more enjoyable and take away some of the stress that comes with preparing meals. 

Below, you will find a few different tools you can use to make mealtime more fun and engaging for you and the people you cook with.

Give Everyone a Task

The first and most important part of this is to make sure that you delegate, so everyone on your team has something to do. Make sure that the tasks you dole out are age appropriate for the people you assign them to. Young kids might be able to help with tasks like setting the table or filling glasses with water. 

Older kids can help to grate cheese or cut vegetables. And teens and adults can help with things like actually cooking on the stove and using the oven. When everyone has a task, they know they are contributing to something valuable.

Assign Someone to Clean

It is also a good idea to have someone assigned to be responsible for cleaning up the messes that happen along the way. This person could help to clean throughout the whole process, or they could take over after the meal is finished to clean up the kitchen and dining area. 

Which method you use will depend on your family member’s schedule and the kind of cleaning that needs to be done. For example, wiping up spills quickly prevents pests from entering your kitchen, so you don't want to put it off too long.

Meal Plan Together

The collaboration surrounding dinner can start well before you start cooking in the kitchen. When the whole family can help to choose meals, you can get everyone excited about meal times. This means that you will have more fun working together to create dinners that the whole family can enjoy. You can have the whole family brainstorm together, or you can put each family member in charge of choosing a meal for a particular day. However you do it, make sure you make it fun for your family to cook and eat together.

Meal times are an opportunity for you and your family to grow closer together, but that only works if everyone gets involved. Starting to have more collaboration around meal times starts with asking for help. So, don’t be afraid to get your family engaged and stop doing all of the prep work on your own.

Did you enjoy reading this article? Here’s more to read. How to Cook Meals That Will Help Your Kids Grow