Food is a big part of homemaking but preparing three meals a day can be a serious challenge when you have young kids to manage.
If you are leaning on screen time to occupy your kids in order to get meals on the table, I am here to help!
Here are some simple homemaking ideas for the mama who is not enjoying motherhood, particularly in the mealtime department…
Enjoy your motherhood by making meals easy
If you are an overwhelmed mom in a hectic season of life, serve an easy peasy “Snack Tray Dinner” once a week.
This homemaking idea changed my life.
Charcuterie boards feel fancy and taste delicious but take little to no effort to actually throw together.
Sometimes mealtime becomes overwhelming and we find that we are not enjoying motherhood because we are trying to do way too much in a demanding season of life when we don’t have a whole lot of extra energy.
My family LOVES these food trays and they are very simple to throw together as a busy mom.
We make our own charcuterie board with various cheeses, crackers, pepperoni, deli meats, fruits, veg, dips, and popcorn.
The kids (and my husband) have a ball filling up their own plates and going back for seconds.
This homemaking idea is a great meal time solution to prevent mom burn out especially during postpartum and the little years. Prep and clean up is quick and easy.
Not every meal has to be hot or gourmet.
I bet your family would rather have a joyful mama who enjoys them and enjoys simple homemaking than a stressed out mom who made a five course dinner.
Sometimes we eat homemade snack trays. Sometimes we eat smoothies that the kids helped me blend up.
These simple meals are some of my family’s absolute favorite and they take little time, effort, or clean up.
Enjoy your homemaking by making dinner in the morning
If evening time is chaotic in your home because the kids get antsy and your energy dips, try prepping meals in the morning or whenever you have more margin as a mom.
This could be before the kids wake up, when everyone goes outside to play after breakfast, while the kids are enjoying easy sandwiches for lunch, or during quiet rest time.
Prepare dinner at a time when it is less stressful for you.
As a morning person, I have found it so much easier to prep dinner right after breakfast than to wait until five o clock to when I am ready for a nap and the preschooler is ready to swing from the rafters.
If we are going to have tacos for dinner, I will fry up the meat, onions, and bell peppers mid-morning.
Later that evening, all I will have to do is push a few buttons on my rice cooker, heat up some black beans in a pot, and warm up the meat I made that morning. These tasks only take a few minutes.
Most of the hard work has been done before noon.
This homemaking idea has saved me so much frustration at meal time. Everything is ready long before people are hungry for dinner and my energy is zapped.
Enjoy your motherhood by sharing the load
Another way to prevent mom burnout and overwhelm is to include everyone in the setting of and cleaning up of the table.
As children grow, they become capable of so much.
Teach them how to be a stellar dinner guest by establishing the expectation early that they will scrape off and rinse their own plate after supper.
Depending on the ages and stages of your kids, you might want to include them in wiping off the table, spraying down the baby’s highchair, loading the dishwasher, packing away leftovers, and sanitizing the kitchen counters.
In homemaking, many hands make light work!
Your kids are not doing you a favor by participating in meal clean up. You are investing in them when you train them in skills they will need for a lifetime.
It is better for your children to learn how to make meals and tidy up alongside you where you can set a positive tone and a joyful example than it is for them to struggle with the basics later in life and consider these chores a drudgery.
This is one homemaking idea you do not want to skip. Teach your kid’s how to do chores young.
Encourage them to be participants in all aspects of family meal times.
Enjoy your homemaking by changing your mindset about meals
Sometimes you will find that you are not enjoying motherhood and homemaking because you have forgotten the why behind it all.
If everyone in your home is isolating on their own devices during meals or if you are rushing through dinner to get to the next thing, slow down and think about what food was actually meant for.
Food is good. It was meant to nourish us and bring us together in community.
The family table is a very special place where delicious meals can be enjoyed and conversations can be had. We don’t need to rush through meals.
I know it can feel exhausting and overwhelming during the little years just to get sustenance on the table, but it does not have to be that way.
Whether you utilize a crockpot, cook enough to have leftovers, or make your meals from scratch, meal time can and should be a time of joyful fellowship for families.
Don’t waste this golden opportunity to enjoy your loved ones by getting so bogged down in the details of it all.
Enjoy your motherhood by including your kids
Instead of turning on a show for the kids, include them in the kitchen. They will eat up this opportunity to work alongside you and you will feel more fulfilled as a mother when you use your kitchen time to intentionally pour into your little people.
Homemaking Ideas for Including Kids in the Kitchen:
- Measure rice, pour rice and water into the rice cooker, and push the buttons
- Roll up a batch of premade crescent rolls and put them on a baking sheet
- Pour water, oil, and cocoa into a bowl and mix up a batch of brownies
- Chop veggies with a child safe knife and pour them in your pot of soup
- Stir spaghetti sauce beside you, sprinkle in seasonings, and taste test
- Break up crackers with their hands to make crumbs to go in your meatloaf
- Season your pot roast on the counter with all kinds of seasonings
- Stir stew or sauté veggies on low heat with you very close by
Enjoy your homemaking by simplifying meal planning
Carve out time to sit with your family and make a master list of meals, snacks, and desserts that each human in your family enjoys.
Everybody does not have to like every meal every night. But make that list and draw from it throughout the week.
This homemaking tip helped me to cut out the decision fatigue at meal time.
As a mom, I already have thousands of thoughts buzzing around in my head every day. I didn’t need to waste precious real estate in my mind wondering what we should eat at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
By creating a master list of meals my family enjoyed, I cut down on picky eater problems and started to enjoy motherhood more.
Enjoy your homemaking by making your home a place of Screen Free Hospitality
This homemaking idea is sure to lift your mood and help you to enjoy motherhood more. If you’ve been trying to “do it all” without community, without a support system, without friends, than you are likely to burn out.
Mama, you we not meant to do life alone.
Gather with family, friends, and strangers around your dinner table often.
Meals are always more enjoyable in fellowship with other people.
Designate one evening per week, every other week, or per month, to host another family into your home for dinner. Your children will be just as excited as you are to engage with friends over a meal.
If you feel overwhelmed at the mere thought of hosting, you might be coming at it from the wrong perspective.
Hospitality is not about having a picture perfect home and an exotic meal for your friends to come and enjoy. It’s about being vulnerable, authentic, and gracious as you welcome people into your home.
People are probably not going to remember the exact dish you made or how clean your toilets were, but they will remember how you made them feel.
Make them feel like a member of your very own family.
When people offer to bring a dish, let them. When people arrive before everything is finished and ask how they can help, include them. Let them wash a pot, set the table, or read a book to your toddler.
This is how friendships are strengthened and community is formed.
I do clean up my home extra and talk to my kids about hospitable behavior before guests come, but I don’t seek to put on any kind of perfection show.
We often serve guests simple meals on paper plates, tell guests what they can bring if they ask, and include them when they show a desire to help out.
Hospitality has brought so much joy to my home.
By looking outside of my family and thinking of others that we could serve and include in our simple family meals, I have began to enjoy motherhood and homemaking more.
Hospitality has helped our whole family deepen friendships with others and create a culture of fellowship around meals that I hope my little ones will remember long after they leave our home.
Enjoy your motherhood by making meal times purposeful
See yourself as a Facilitator of Fellowship for your family. Redeem the time you are given by using meal times wisely.
Instead of propping up an iPad for your kids during meals, ask them some simple questions to get conversation going.
Also, take full advantage of the times that your little ones’ mouths are full to fill their ears with good things. Meal time is a great time to read aloud to your children.
In our home, we do scripture memory and homeschool read alouds during breakfast. Over dinner, my husband reads us a chapter or two from a children’s bible and a page from our history book.
Instead of rushing through dinner, inhaling our food, and disengaging as quick as possible, we choose to talk, linger, and read.
This has made meals extra meaningful to me and helped me to enjoy motherhood. I no longer feel that I am just doling out sustenance for people to scarf down, waste, or complain about.
I know that through long meals, I am building relationship and redeeming the time I am given with my family.
View yourself as an artist painting the atmosphere on the canvas of your home. Using meals as a time of intentional fellowship is part of the art of homemaking.
If you are not enjoying motherhood because of stressful mealtimes, I hope you found some homemaking tips to motivate you here today. Let me know in the comments below what your favorite part about sharing a meal with your family is!
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