Meal planning for one’s family is never an easy task. It only becomes more overwhelming when lots of people gather at the table.
A Multigenerational Approach to Family Meal Planning and Eating Habits
Usually, such families include members across different generations. While two-year-olds act their age, seniors cannot help but be less than charmed by their disruptions. Hereby starts an unpleasant clash between being extreme and wildly permissive.
To top it all, a multigenerational dining table often sees decades of differences in social norms and family dynamics collide over a traditional recipe. Do you also feel like your family table can have an air of warmth mixed with tension?
Is it getting difficult to meet everyone’s nutritional needs? Then, this article is for you. We will discuss four ways that make for a smart approach to multigenerational meal planning and eating practices.
Start With Professional Help
It’s not challenging to make a meal plan for a multigenerational family just because there are so many dishes to prepare. One of the major challenges is to incorporate everyone’s dietary requirements or restrictions.
From a worm-eye view, it’s simpler in the sense that children and infants eat distinct meals from adults or even seniors. However, a bird’s-eye view shows that there can be many differences in nutritional needs among all age groups.
You must start by understanding the key needs of each family member before preparing a meal plan. Seek professional help but steer away from the obvious. In other words, avoid looking for a nutritionist.
This is because the meal plan must be prepared not only based on nutritional requirements but also on any possible health conditions. WebMD states that nutritionists cannot usually diagnose health conditions because they do not require a license to practice.
A better option would be consulting with a registered family nurse practitioner (FNP). According to Rockhurst University, family nurse practitioners are trained to extend care across all age groups, from infants to senior adults.
Those who have pursued post-MSN FNP online programs are ready to assume specialized roles within a shorter span. This is especially useful in the current scenario of nursing shortages across the US. The nursing professional will recommend a customized meal plan only after considering individual members’ dietary needs.
In the process, they will diagnose any health conditions that may require food restrictions or healthy substitutions. What’s more, is that all this will be done within the boundaries of your family’s budget and cultural preferences. That’s truly a solid place to start multigenerational family meal planning.
Make Time in Your Schedule
Time has become the currency of the modern world. What’s more, is that this has even been tested. In a recent survey, it was found that Americans valued their time at an average of $240 an hour.
That’s nearly eight times higher than the average annual salary in our country! With time being so precious and yet so fleeting, it can seem like the most challenging part of meal planning for a multigenerational family.
There’s a reason it’s called ‘fast food’ but it comes at the expense of one’s health. It’s far better to pay the price in time for healthy meals. Get ready to margin in your busy schedule and edit it ruthlessly.
You may have to eliminate a few commitments from your calendar. For instance, some families participate in community activities like scouts. As the numbers grow or time seems sparser, such activities may have to take a break.
Too many items on the schedule leave the kids tired, the house out of order, and the parents frazzled. It’s just not worth it, especially when it may be possible to strike some things out. That way, you will make more time for the truly important stuff (which includes meal planning).
Develop Your Food Preparedness Skills
Our great-grandmothers were lauded for their management skills. Despite a huge farm of animals to tend to, they managed to grow a garden, raise lots of children, and even sew a few quilts.
As impossible as this seems, it’s all about solid time management, setting priorities straight, and developing preparedness skills. All of this starts with proper planning. Speaking specifically of food preparation, create a list of healthy meals for all members (including dietary restrictions).
Next, stock your pantry with all healthy staples. When you always have what you need, it becomes easier to whip up your family’s favorite meals. If possible, try gardening in the backyard or lawn area.
The fruits and vegetables you grow will prove to be cost-effective for a large family. Plus, you will likely find quicker meal options waiting outside your door. Above all, one skill that may take time to develop but surely pays off is that of food canning and preservation.
You can almost create a ‘grocery store’ of homegrown food in the basement with this skill. Since this will take time, start with any one item your family loves. Learn to preserve it over and over until you’re good at it. Then you can move on to the next item.
There are many methods of food preservation, including dehydration, pressure canning, and freezing. The latter is the easiest so you can start with it, gradually moving on to the others. Alongside, learn to prepare fermented foods like kombucha, sourdough, and kefir.
These may also take some time but they’re worth the effort. They are healthy and will work wonders in keeping a large family satisfied for longer.
Set Strict Rules for the Table
As mentioned previously, one of the major challenges of eating together as a large multigenerational family is chaos at the table. With people of different age groups, this may seem like normal but there should be some method to the chaos.
Food is not only nourishment for the body but also a means of enjoying fellowship and communion with the family. To make the most of this vital time for connection, lay down some strict table rules.
Try to find a reasonable middle ground between older-generation dining etiquette and current practices. For instance, the elders at the table may believe that nobody should get up until their plate is clean. However, you may believe in allowing your children to develop a healthy relationship with food.
In that case, find a middle ground: serve only little to the picky eaters. Let them taste everything and ask for more of what they prefer. This will reduce the chances of food wastage and will also keep everyone at the table happy.
Similarly, establish dinner rules and let every family member know them. They may include putting all phones away while eating, keeping the elbows off the table, etc. Food eaten without any distractions indeed gets digested better.
The table rules you set will do more than bring your family closer. They will ensure your family gets the maximum benefits of the healthy food you serve them.
Recent surveys have found that casual dining is steadily on the rise. The percentage has risen from 63% in 2023 to 69% in 2024. With a large family, dining out once in a while is fine.
However, making it a usual practice is not only detrimental to your wallet but also to everyone’s health. With the approach discussed in this article under four tips, you will be able to manage the nutritional needs of a multigenerational household.
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