Three wild boys, a chatterbox daughter, and trying to hang on to sanity was too much as we gathered around the table, everyone talking at once. Enter the “Dinner Dilemma Jar”.
A simple mason jar, scraps of paper, and suddenly silence, respect, conversation.
It all started ten years ago when my oldest came home from school trying to memorize Shakespearean quotes.
He was struggling and juggling our schedule still didn’t find enough time for me to help my son. I needed some one-on-one time…or at least for his brother to be quiet long enough to let me hear sanity.
So one night, I wrote down some Shakespeare, cut it out into strips of paper, folded them, and placed them in a Mason Jar.
Then I thought, “I better give his brother something too”, so I wrote down things like: “What was the best thing about your day?”, “What is one thing you are willing to practice every day?”, “What’s a synonym for quiet?”
That night at dinner, we sat down.
We were merely a family of four then.
I explained we would each be drawing from the Dinner Dilemma Jar.
The person who drew had the floor.
They were to read the card and follow the instructions.
Once they were finished, the next person would draw and we would repeat the process.
We started and we have never looked back.
Through the years it has not only helped my son earn an A on his “Memories of Shakespeare”, but taken two kiddos to District Science Fairs, scored many A’s on spelling, vocabulary, geography, Boy Scout oath, and more.
We’ve added strips daily–little things like spelling a word that means _____ to bigger things, like life lessons.
Some of the strips are silly, like “switch plates with anyone at the table” or “lead everyone in a table rumble” (something one of the kids learned at school and thought was awesome!)
The children love having a turn and then the excitement of what a sibling or parent will discover on their piece of paper.
One of the greatest things about our Mason Jar is that you never know what your paper will say…we sometimes pull out those papers with Shakespeare quotations that are starting to yellow and become thin.
Julee Morrison is an author and writer with over 35 years of experience in parenting and family recipes. She’s the author of four cookbooks: The Instant Pot College Cookbook, The How-To Cookbook for Teens, The Complete Cookbook for Teens, and The Complete College Cookbook.
Outside of writing, Julee enjoys baking, reading, collecting crystals, and spending time with her family. You can find more of her work at Mommy’s Memorandum.
Manage Your Cookies
We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyze our traffic. You can accept all cookies or customize your preferences.
By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL cookies. You may also choose to reject non-essential cookies.
The Website uses Mediavine to manage all third-party advertising on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use cookies. Mediavine may collect IP addresses and location to serve personalized ads. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
