Dinner Didn’t Go as Planned (Again) — And That’s Okay

It was going to be perfect. I had the recipe pulled up, all the ingredients on hand, and just enough time to get everything prepped before the kids started melting down. I had a vision: a cozy, healthy family dinner, eaten together at the table like a Pinterest board come to life.

What actually happened?

One kid refused to eat because it “looked weird.” Another cried because their favorite cup was in the dishwasher. The dog stole a chicken thigh. I burned the rice. Someone spilled juice all over the floor. I ended up eating my dinner standing at the sink.

And yet… we survived. Everyone ate something, eventually. No one starved. And honestly, no one cared that it didn’t go according to plan—except me.

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Real Talk: Dinner Doesn’t Have to Be a Performance

It’s easy to get swept up in the pressure to make every meal “special.” Social media makes it look like other families are sitting down to candlelit quinoa and lovingly roasted vegetables every night. But most of us are just trying to get something edible on the table before bedtime.

And that’s enough.

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What Actually Matters

• Did your kids eat something? Great.
• Was it cereal, leftovers, or frozen nuggets? Still great.
• Did someone laugh, even if there were also tears? Amazing.
• Did you do your best with the energy you had? That’s the gold star.

Perfect dinners are rare. Nourishing your family doesn’t always mean homemade, balanced, or Instagram-worthy. Sometimes, it means buttered noodles and a Popsicle. Sometimes, it means ordering pizza and watching a movie because that’s what your sanity needed.

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Let Go of the Guilt

Dinner doesn’t have to be magical. It just has to happen.
So the next time it all goes sideways—again—remember this: You are feeding your family with love, even if the love comes with a side of microwaved mac and cheese.

You’re doing great. Even if dinner didn’t go as planned.

I Yelled Today—And That’s Okay

I yelled today. Not because I’m a bad mom. Not because I don’t love my kids more than life itself. But because I’m human—and some days are hard.

The toddler refused pants, the baby ate dog food, the older one spilled juice down the stairs, and I had exactly 3.5 hours of sleep and no coffee. So yeah, I yelled. Then I felt awful. Guilty. Like I’d ruined everything.

But here’s the truth I keep trying to learn: perfect parenting doesn’t exist.

What does exist? Apologies. Hugs. Trying again. Kids seeing that grownups make mistakes and say sorry, and that love doesn’t disappear just because we lost our cool for a minute.

So I sat on the floor, pulled my kids into a pile of limbs and snot and snack crumbs, and said, “I’m sorry. I had a big feeling. Let’s start fresh.” And they did. Because kids are resilient and forgiving and made of second chances.

You’re not failing. You’re doing the messy, real work of showing up—even when you’re tired, overwhelmed, and not your best self. That’s enough. You’re enough.

Dining Out: Healthy Choices for Kids at Tim Hortons

Where we live, there are Tim Hortons everywhere. Nearly on every street corner. It's inevitable that we end up stopping there, and typically more than I'd like. But when you're on the go and you have kids and you want coffee...well, sometimes you just end up where you end up. And now the kids want something too.

Luckily, Tim Hortons is far more than donuts and coffee these days. They have sandwiches and wraps which can easily satisfy the young ones. Try to steer your kids away from that Ice Cap they want and skip the donuts. If the kids want a bite of something sweet, a Timbit will do. Less calories, less sugar.

Sandwiches are good. The whole wheat option for breads is ideal, but don't get the soups. They're really high in sodium.

Order

The toasted chicken club is a good choice. It's tasty and kids seem to love it. Add an apply juice and just 3 honey-dipped Timbits and you only have 680 calories. For a sandwich and a handful of tiny donuts, that's a really good number. And the kids will happily eat it up.

Don't Order

Again, skip that Ice Cap. If you get an Ice Cap, a chocolate chunk cookie, and a BLT sandwich, you're up to 900 calories and over 1100 mg of sodium. There's also 17 g of saturated fat. That's a lot of salt and fat and they won't be any happier with the meal. 

Pandemic Fun: Board Games Galore!

The cornavirus, Covid-19, hasn't exactly been easy. Everyone has suffered in some way. Everyone has had to give something up. Where I am, we've been in lockdown of some form or another for nearly 10 months. That's a long time to go without seeing friends and family (except online). It's a long time to not be able to shop for non-essentials. And it's a long time to have the kids home.

My children are 14 and 12 now. Older, so perhaps that makes it easier. Or harder. Or maybe it's what everyone is going through this past year. But at least their education hasn't suffered. We've kept up with the school work, they've talked to their teachers on the phone, and each kid is doing wonderfully. School from home isn't the worst thing in the world. And I work from home anyway.

But it's a lot of time to spend together. I'm not complaining. I love having the boys around. And in the summer and fall, it was easy. We spent so much time outside with the chickens and the rabbits that we didn't have time to get sick of each other and we certainly weren't bored. 

Now winter has set in. It's January in Canada, so it's cold. We still look after the animals, obviously, but we no longer spend 12 hours out in the barnyard. It's far too cold for that. Like so many others, we're stuck indoors. All the time. Together. They have their school work, but it really doesn't take that long. If they have an hour of actual work a day, I'd be surprised.

They have video games. They can watch movies. But I'm not sure that's as enriching as I'd like it to be and it involves no time with the family. And so came the return of the family board game.

To be clear, we'd never really abandoned board games. We had a game night. One game a week. That was it. That was all we'd had time for. Now it's an entirely different story. We're home all the time. All the time. Together. To save our sanity, we decided a game a day was the way to go.

We started breaking out board games we hadn't played in years. We even bought some new ones. Monopoly, of course, was at the forefront, but there were so many others. Actually, we have several versions of Monopoly. Lord of the Rings is our favorite, but we played Star Wars, Deluxe Edition, and that really long one my younger son got for Christmas. Insanity.

But no more Monopoly. There are only so many games you can play before you start to hate each other. And there are so many games out there to explore. If you're looking for something a little different, and you like a good ghost story, try Betrayal at House on the Hill. It's fantastic. We liked it so much we bought the expansion and the upgrade kit. It's totally awesome. Get this game if you want to have a great time with family. We're inviting our neighbors over for a great game just as soon we we're allowed to have people over at all.

There are other games we've played too. An older game we enjoyed was Survive! Escape from Atlantis. Hadn't played that one for a long time, now we're just loving it all over again. It also has an expansion. A Lord of the Rings game I hadn't touched in years was also a hit. And the Nightmare Video Board Game series was great once I ripped the old VHS tapes to DVDs. It's all been great. And hilarious.

If you haven't already, bring back the board games. They're a great way to have a fun time with your kids and other family members. Most games take less than an hour, so everyone has time for them. One game in the evening isn't going to kill anyone, despite what you're teenagers tell you. Give it a shot. It was well worth it for us.