Family dinners should be wonderful, perfect, perhaps what you might call wholesome moments where everyone gathers, shares stories about their day, and enjoys a lovely home-cooked meal together. But in reality it’s often chaos, and there will probably be someone who doesn’t like what’s on their plate, someone who’s glued to their phone, and someone (probably you) wondering why you bothered in the first place.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. However, before you give up on the idea of a peaceful family dinner, there is some good news – family meals can be stress-free, and they can be fun. Keep reading to find out more.

Keep It Simple

If you’re imagining a perfect meal with all the trimmings and everything homemade, that could be the problem – you’re trying to do too much, so it’s wise to lower your expectations first – that’s definitely going to help you. That’s because the key to a stress-free dinner is simplicity.

You’ll want to look for things like one-pot meals, or sheet pan dinners, or things you can make at the table like tacos, pasta, or build-your-own this or that. What we’re basically saying is that you need to make life easier for yourself so you’re less stressed – if that means frozen pizza, that’s fine. Remember, the goal is to get together, so it’s less about the food and more about doing that.

Get Everyone Involved

If you’re the only one doing all the work (all the planning, cooking, setting the table, cleaning up and so on) then of course it’s going to be stressful, and that’s why you need to get everyone involved and make it more of a team effort. It doesn’t matter how old the kids are either because there will always be a job they can do, and it’s good for them to learn.

Smaller ones can help set the table, for example, and older kids can help to stir, chop, or even cook a whole meal once in a while – again, it’s a great life skill to learn how to do it. And then there’s the cleaning up, which the kids can definitely have a hand in. The fact is that when everyone plays their part, dinner won’t feel like another chore you have to do, and everyone can enjoy it a lot more.

Add Some Fun

Some nights dinner just needs that little bit of extra entertainment to keep things light – especially if everyone is feeling stressed and someone has had a bad day. You can have some fun games and traditions you do over dinner that people can look forward to and that will brighten things up right away.

You could have a load of jokes for kids up your sleeve to get everyone laughing, for example, or perhaps have some theme nights (ideas include having breakfast for dinner, fancy dress night, eat with your hands night, red food night, and so on) to liven up the meal. No matter what you do, if you bring a fun element to the table (literally) it’s going to make family dinners a lot less stressful.