Mealtimes have always been rather nerve-wrecking experiences with 4 children to play waitress to. Being small in size and thus having short arms, the kids always need an adult's help to get to the food that is not placed right in front of them. That makes me too busy to enjoy my own food.
Also, I usually serve the food in the crockery which I cook them in and they are very often made of breakable materials. My heart leaps into my mouth whenever I see the kids push or pull the bowls clumsily towards where they want it to be. Suffice to say, there were many near accidents.
Since we were moving to a new place, I decided to make some changes so as to reduce the trepidation I have to face each meal with.
The first thing I did was to get a turntable. This is so that the kids can conveniently reach ALL the food with a spin of the Lazy Susan. Next, I bought a set of plastic bowls so that I don't have to constantly worry over the kids breaking the crockery and hurting themselves. I also replaced the serving spoons with tongs which are much easier for little fingers to use. To aid that, I cut the food up into bite-size pieces.
I didn't realise at the beginning but this arrangement reduces the number of times we have to leave our seat to get something done for the kids during the course of the meal too! We can ask them to put their bowls onto the turntable so that we can move it within our reach to do whatever they need us to do, e.g. cutting up the food into even smaller pieces, and return the bowls to them the same way.
Now, it is mostly just Joram (and occasionally Jaide too) who needs our help. But since they are seated on the left and right of the adult, helping them is a breeze as compared to the past.
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| Getting food for himself with ease |
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