Weaning the Family Off of Eating in Front of the TV

by Steven Cravis

A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that my 7 year old daughter was emotionally, and possibly physically, incapable of eating at the kitchen table, away from the TV, when she started crying and saying "then I don't want it (the food) if I have to eat it in the kitchen."

Something had to be done about this monster habit my wife and I had created for ourselves and the children, through our own example of bringing meal plates into the living room, in front of the HD TV, where we were almost like zombies tethered to our food and TV at the same time. We had less appreciation for the food because we were watching TV with it, less awareness of the process of eating and enjoying the food, and less time acknowledging and being with each other.

So I tried something new for our family, and even though probably a majority of families don't have this problem and already turn all screens and entertainment devices off at dinner time to sit together as a family and dine, I just have this feeling that this is going to help some other family out there to escape from and conquer the same dependence on eating in front of the tv into which we've fallen.

I turned what I call the 'big rule switch', my term for changing the rules of how the family does things in a drastic, rather harsh way, a paradigm shift bound to cause discomfort, but hopefully in the big picture improve the true quality of life. I yelled out to the family, with my imaginary bull horn, "From now on, at meal time, all TVs, computers or games have to be turned off! Everyone must come into the kitchen and eat together as a family. The only exception is if you want a healthy snack, such as an apple, or a healthy drink such as water or real fruit juice, you may consume that in front of the TV!"

The latter part about the healthy snack exception might sound contradictory, but really it's a big part of the secret to our success in weaning ourselves off of eating in front of the tv. You see, now if my daughter wants something to eat between family meal times in the kitchen, and we offer something, she'll ask "Is that healthy?" because she still wants to sit in front of the TV if possible. She's eating more healthy snacks now as a result, but also she's eating smaller amounts at meals with the family, doesn't cry anymore about small issues like having to be away from the TV during those meals, and she's losing some weight in a good way. None of us will drink sodas or eat anything else that's junky while in the room we spend most of our at home time.

And when my daughter eats that apple, she clearly is more into crunching her way through the whole apple than she is into the TV show that's playing.

Steven Cravis is a musician and blogger Sphere: Related Content