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The Happy Dinner Table: The Path to Healthy & Harmonious Family Meals
Discover the direct path from picky eating to greater enjoyment of family meals and a more harmonious home life. Transform your dinner table into a place of happy memories instead of a battlefield as you explore delightful ways to reverse picky eating and establish an atmosphere of mutual respect. This book includes personal stories, research studies and enlightening examples that will equip you to work with your children instead of against them.You’ll discover where to hold the line with your child and where to back off, where to focus your efforts for greatest impact and where taking it easy is critical. You’ll find here practical, proven tactics to engage a child’s will without resorting to rewards or punishment. This book empowers parents to guide their children toward a sincere appreciation of what’s good for them, at the table and beyond.
- GenresParentingNonfiction
230 pages, Paperback
Published May 27, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 29, 2022
3.5 stars rounded up to 4. Several ideas presented here are living, wonderful, helpful, and practical. We have changed the way we do things at the table and I’m hopeful for long term change.
Unfortunately, the good ideas came almost exclusively in the last few chapters. The writing style of extremely short paragraphs and continually deferred advice (“I will explain how to do this in later chapters.”) I found irritating. I also benefitted from being already very familiar with Charlotte Mason & previously reading Supper of the Lamb.
Living Ideas summed up
1. Happy eating is nourishing eating
2. Don’t force kids to eat anything ever
3. Don’t use dessert as a reward
4. Restrict snacks, leverage hunger
5. Serve family style
6. Stay calm, leverage cheerful conversation
7. Model, model, model
Unfortunately, the good ideas came almost exclusively in the last few chapters. The writing style of extremely short paragraphs and continually deferred advice (“I will explain how to do this in later chapters.”) I found irritating. I also benefitted from being already very familiar with Charlotte Mason & previously reading Supper of the Lamb.
Living Ideas summed up
1. Happy eating is nourishing eating
2. Don’t force kids to eat anything ever
3. Don’t use dessert as a reward
4. Restrict snacks, leverage hunger
5. Serve family style
6. Stay calm, leverage cheerful conversation
7. Model, model, model
February 8, 2018
I found this to be a fascinating application of Charlotte Mason's principles. Although I appreciated the book for what it had to say about eating and dining together, it was just as helpful to me from an educational standpoint to see Mason's principles applied so practically in a different realm. I came away feeling like I had a better grasp of Mason's principles in general.
The tone could be a little condescending at times, but I appreciated hearing Migeon's (and Mason's) perspective.
The tone could be a little condescending at times, but I appreciated hearing Migeon's (and Mason's) perspective.
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January 2, 2026This book is like if someone put French Kids Eat Everything, Don’t Make Me Count to Three, and a volume of Charlotte Mason together into one book. I’m not going to elaborate on that because it’s mostly for me to remember what I liked and didn’t like about this book.
There were a few helpful and thought provoking things. Some things I’ve already implemented and see the potential for positive change. Unfortunately this book was long and felt repetitive, along with a heavy dose of condescension. I know authors most likely never mean to be condescending, but this ranks among a handful of books I have read that strongly come across as saying, “Why do people do these dumb things? If you were perfect like me it wouldn’t happen. Let me tell you how you need to change.” I felt chastised more often than I felt encouraged or inspired. I wouldn’t recommend this for someone who is highly discouraged by their child’s eating habits unless I knew they could see past the tone.
That said, some helpful ideas and interesting to see Charlotte Mason philosophy carried over into areas outside of education. I wouldn’t mind reading it again as a reference but would set my expectations differently. I do believe the author has a heart to help families and I think there is good to be found in her ideas.
There were a few helpful and thought provoking things. Some things I’ve already implemented and see the potential for positive change. Unfortunately this book was long and felt repetitive, along with a heavy dose of condescension. I know authors most likely never mean to be condescending, but this ranks among a handful of books I have read that strongly come across as saying, “Why do people do these dumb things? If you were perfect like me it wouldn’t happen. Let me tell you how you need to change.” I felt chastised more often than I felt encouraged or inspired. I wouldn’t recommend this for someone who is highly discouraged by their child’s eating habits unless I knew they could see past the tone.
That said, some helpful ideas and interesting to see Charlotte Mason philosophy carried over into areas outside of education. I wouldn’t mind reading it again as a reference but would set my expectations differently. I do believe the author has a heart to help families and I think there is good to be found in her ideas.
April 30, 2024
I have many problems with this book. For starters, it is unnecessarily long, and not in an interesting way. This could easily have been three blog posts instead. There is also a lot of shaming. I also strongly disapprove of most French eating advice which the author LOVES, to the point of quoting from "French Women Don't Get Fat" as a source multiple times (losing any shred of respect I could have had for this book). All the real information and helpful tips are in the last 4 chapters. The rest of the book is just shaming you for how you ruined your children by being dumb.
Also, my children are in fact great eaters who have age appropriate table manners, and I don't do most of the things she said soooooo. I read this as a Charlotte Mason book, and as usual, I should have just stuck to reading Charlotte Mason herself. I only finished it because I paid for it and I am stubborn.
Also, my children are in fact great eaters who have age appropriate table manners, and I don't do most of the things she said soooooo. I read this as a Charlotte Mason book, and as usual, I should have just stuck to reading Charlotte Mason herself. I only finished it because I paid for it and I am stubborn.
June 12, 2018
I only wish I would have found this book a few years earlier to avoid some bad habits that our family has already implemented at the table, but so thankful to have found it while my kids are still young. I absolutely loved to see Charlotte Mason’s principles so practically applied and walked away with a quiet confidence to make positive changes to our dinner table. Here’s to hoping it will be happy table indeed for many years to come!
January 10, 2018
This book inspired me with new ideas about how to help my children learn to enjoy more foods. I love that she quoted Charlotte Mason throughout the book and used many of CM's principles to inform her recommendations. The author's experience of living in France with her French husband and family also piqued my interest as I have been intrigued by French eating practices since reading French Kids Eat Everything. I look forward to implementing many of her suggestions and I am inspired by her confidence that her principles will work. I gave it four stars for content and inspiration, but I almost gave it three stars because there are many grammatical errors. The book could do with a good editor to tighten up the material and the grammar. But, it is definitely worth overlooking those problems to get to the meat of this book.
March 26, 2024
You offer me family culture, Charlotte Mason philosophy, the Suzuki method, foodie talk, and good ol’ common sense parenting and I will happily and heartily accept. Very much enjoyed.
December 23, 2023
12/23/23 - Reading a second time, more thoughtfully and taking a lot of notes, I feel like I gained more understanding and found more examples that I missed the first time.
9/8/23 - I love Charlotte Mason and I love healthy eating, so naturally, this book checked both those boxes. Overall, I found some helpful things to think about and try out in our home. Not only on eating but building good habits in general and even some good parenting advice based on Charlotte Mason's principles. I don't agree with everything she has suggested and her claims that if you offer a variety of scheduled meals, served family style, with no pressure to eat anything that your children will happily eat healthy foods seem way too good to be true. I wish there were some more practical suggestions in the book. When they don't like what is served, simply saying, "OK. I guess you're not hungry." Then having a pleasant conversation to distract them. Hmmm...not sure that would go over well with my children. I take it from other parts in the book that if they don't want anything you served they don't have to eat it but they are not allowed to eat anything else. I'm not sure how this approach would encourage children to taste or learn to enjoy new foods. This book offers some good ideas to help children appreciate a wider variety of food and create a little happier atmosphere at the dinner table, but I will be continuing to search for some more practical ideas to put in place.
9/8/23 - I love Charlotte Mason and I love healthy eating, so naturally, this book checked both those boxes. Overall, I found some helpful things to think about and try out in our home. Not only on eating but building good habits in general and even some good parenting advice based on Charlotte Mason's principles. I don't agree with everything she has suggested and her claims that if you offer a variety of scheduled meals, served family style, with no pressure to eat anything that your children will happily eat healthy foods seem way too good to be true. I wish there were some more practical suggestions in the book. When they don't like what is served, simply saying, "OK. I guess you're not hungry." Then having a pleasant conversation to distract them. Hmmm...not sure that would go over well with my children. I take it from other parts in the book that if they don't want anything you served they don't have to eat it but they are not allowed to eat anything else. I'm not sure how this approach would encourage children to taste or learn to enjoy new foods. This book offers some good ideas to help children appreciate a wider variety of food and create a little happier atmosphere at the dinner table, but I will be continuing to search for some more practical ideas to put in place.
July 23, 2019
Great ideas, very thoughtful and insightful, but needs some serious editing. Just too wordy. I had to skim quite a lot to really get to the meat of the book. I would still recommend it to new parents though. Worth reading and thinking about.
July 31, 2022
Overall, this book provides a sensible plan of action for teaching children to embrace variety and enjoy their food.
Citing both Charlotte Mason and the way the French eat, the author argues that we should (a) never require or even urge children to eat anything, but also (b) never allow junk food or snacking that would interfere with their appetites. Surrounded only by healthy, scheduled options and a positive outlook toward food, children will respond (at least mostly) by cheerfully eating what is put before them.
I mostly agreed with the author.
I also distrust absolute prohibitions in parenting books. Often, I think, they come from authors who have worked with families caught in dysfunction. Considering that my family has a healthy attitude towards food, I think I am unlikely to mess my kids up by occasionally boosting their blood sugar with a morning snack or by sometimes (gasp) requiring them to eat something. There are times when mom knows a little kid will be extremely grumpy if he doesn’t eat at least a portion of his sandwich! In addition, I also like the concept of the “thank-you bite” (the idea that since the cook worked hard, polite people should at least TASTE the dish).
I also get a little impatient with Charlotte-Mason inspired materials that say, “you shouldn’t need to punish your children, you should just inspire them to WANT to do what you know is best for them!” It is not that I think parents should be going around forcing and punishing, of course; but I have seen so many parents who interpret this idea as a promise that they won’t ever have to “feel mean” or assert authority as parents. They then create plaintive posts on Facebook asking how to “get their kids to want” to do quite basic things that loving parents could just require. But I digress.
Again, a mostly sensible and helpful (although repetitive) book.
Honestly, it HAS influenced me–I’ve actually cut out our morning snack and have seen my kids eat more at lunch. We’ll see if that still works during the school year or not!
Citing both Charlotte Mason and the way the French eat, the author argues that we should (a) never require or even urge children to eat anything, but also (b) never allow junk food or snacking that would interfere with their appetites. Surrounded only by healthy, scheduled options and a positive outlook toward food, children will respond (at least mostly) by cheerfully eating what is put before them.
I mostly agreed with the author.
I also distrust absolute prohibitions in parenting books. Often, I think, they come from authors who have worked with families caught in dysfunction. Considering that my family has a healthy attitude towards food, I think I am unlikely to mess my kids up by occasionally boosting their blood sugar with a morning snack or by sometimes (gasp) requiring them to eat something. There are times when mom knows a little kid will be extremely grumpy if he doesn’t eat at least a portion of his sandwich! In addition, I also like the concept of the “thank-you bite” (the idea that since the cook worked hard, polite people should at least TASTE the dish).
I also get a little impatient with Charlotte-Mason inspired materials that say, “you shouldn’t need to punish your children, you should just inspire them to WANT to do what you know is best for them!” It is not that I think parents should be going around forcing and punishing, of course; but I have seen so many parents who interpret this idea as a promise that they won’t ever have to “feel mean” or assert authority as parents. They then create plaintive posts on Facebook asking how to “get their kids to want” to do quite basic things that loving parents could just require. But I digress.
Again, a mostly sensible and helpful (although repetitive) book.
Honestly, it HAS influenced me–I’ve actually cut out our morning snack and have seen my kids eat more at lunch. We’ll see if that still works during the school year or not!
February 23, 2023
This book is about how to build good habits around the dinner table to encourage your children to be good eaters.
1. No snacking- only eating at planned meal times have a Tea (snack) Time that is planned.
2. Serve Family Style meals
3. Do not force your child to eat, their appetite will guide them. She uses a little reverse psychology
4. Keep the meal time a happy time with good conversations
Very much a gentle parenting approach.
While I do agree with most of what she shares. I still require 1-3 bites of foods my child may not like. It took her 5 yrs to like any type of potato but if I never made her take any bites she would still not be eating them! She says exposure breeds taste. You must taste and not just look at food being served to be exposed.
I have read many self published books, many by Charlotte Mason Educators. They all need more help with their editing and FORMATTING of their books. I thought maybe Jen Psaki helped her write this...I will circle back to this. She ended almost 15 chapters this way. That something would be covered in a later chapter. I could see that in an introduction chapter but not 2 whole sections of your book. What she did was cover the WHY didn't tell you the HOW until the last 2 sections and then those sections were really short and you didn't know what why they went to. I could see this being a helpful parenting book to moms with young kids. But you could tell them to just skip the beginning, because I don't know if many would keep reading that many chapters to get to the How.
1. No snacking- only eating at planned meal times have a Tea (snack) Time that is planned.
2. Serve Family Style meals
3. Do not force your child to eat, their appetite will guide them. She uses a little reverse psychology
4. Keep the meal time a happy time with good conversations
Very much a gentle parenting approach.
While I do agree with most of what she shares. I still require 1-3 bites of foods my child may not like. It took her 5 yrs to like any type of potato but if I never made her take any bites she would still not be eating them! She says exposure breeds taste. You must taste and not just look at food being served to be exposed.
I have read many self published books, many by Charlotte Mason Educators. They all need more help with their editing and FORMATTING of their books. I thought maybe Jen Psaki helped her write this...I will circle back to this. She ended almost 15 chapters this way. That something would be covered in a later chapter. I could see that in an introduction chapter but not 2 whole sections of your book. What she did was cover the WHY didn't tell you the HOW until the last 2 sections and then those sections were really short and you didn't know what why they went to. I could see this being a helpful parenting book to moms with young kids. But you could tell them to just skip the beginning, because I don't know if many would keep reading that many chapters to get to the How.
March 30, 2021
This book was poorly written due to lack of editing and constant repetition. I do appreciate the author's borrowed wisdom from systems thinking in that the parent is the change agent and pushing a child reaps resistance (although I do not think the author recognized Bowen theory). What lacked was the attention to the developmental stage and neurological make-up of the child. When and what to eat makes a great impact on a child with mental health and cognitive issues. Some of her concepts were a bit idealistic: the effectiveness and emphasis on the use of lovely serving platters, believing that if the child is hungry enough he will eat what he doesn't like, and providing what adults deem as delicious meals as an encouragement to eat seemed far-fetched.
May 22, 2024
Children are born persons, and this applies at the dinner table too.
I think I understand the buildup to the end of the book where the actual tips to try are more located was to lay the foundation for the whys and the thought process behind it. That being said, the meat (pun intended) is in the last few chapters, in my opinion.
Here’s my big take aways (so I can also remember later on):
-NO snacks (or strategically planned snacks if needed to make it to the next year, but no open grazing)
-A happy dinner table, make it a pleasant experience
-Family style eating, no plating for them (see: they are persons)
-Take a detour… sense a fight about food? direct the conversation elsewhere after a quick acknowledgment of what they said
-NO pressuring to eat anything ever
I think I understand the buildup to the end of the book where the actual tips to try are more located was to lay the foundation for the whys and the thought process behind it. That being said, the meat (pun intended) is in the last few chapters, in my opinion.
Here’s my big take aways (so I can also remember later on):
-NO snacks (or strategically planned snacks if needed to make it to the next year, but no open grazing)
-A happy dinner table, make it a pleasant experience
-Family style eating, no plating for them (see: they are persons)
-Take a detour… sense a fight about food? direct the conversation elsewhere after a quick acknowledgment of what they said
-NO pressuring to eat anything ever
January 18, 2018
I read this book after hearing Brandy Vencel mention it. It is worth reading even if you don’t have fussy eaters. It looks the more general idea cultivating a good atmosphere in the home for your children and draws on the Charlotte Mason concepts of habit and attitude towards children as persons. I had previously been implementing many of the ideas explored in this book but reading ‘The Happy Dinner Table’ has challenged me to stretch myself a little more and be more intentional about cultivating beneficial habits at our dinner table and beyond.
February 6, 2019
I appreciated her ideas and suggestions, and she gave me some new ways to approach the dinner table with kiddos. (Do I agree with everything? I don't know ... we'll see. The proof is in the pudding, right? :))
The book is too wordy and repetitive, however, and could have benefited from a good editor.
The book is too wordy and repetitive, however, and could have benefited from a good editor.
January 17, 2018
Could have been 5 stars instead of weak 4: terrific content, but too long/wordy. A good editor would make a big difference. As it is, I fear the people who could benefit most from the content might not take the time to plow through. But the content is great!
December 4, 2022
The ideas presented here are excellent, and could be very helpful to many people, I’m sure. However, the author includes superfluous tangents and examples that can make it difficult to sort out her main points.
January 13, 2019
Lots of great ideas here. My only wish is that it was a bit more compact. It was quite wordy.
May 25, 2023
Liked in depth exploration of cm principles, especially as they apply to life in general. Needs editing as other reviewers have suggested.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews