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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to try a family breakfast. Having a family

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Speaker 1: meal doesn't always need to mean dinner. A family breakfast

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Speaker 1: could be a great way to start the day at

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Speaker 1: least once a week or so. So lots of people

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Speaker 1: tell me that they would like to have regular family meals. However,

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Speaker 1: many families don't have schedules where that is easy to

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Speaker 1: pull off. At least during the week, kids have activities,

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Speaker 1: parents have work or work travel, and so people aren't

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Speaker 1: always in the same place at the same time. Plus,

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Speaker 1: there is no one doing these somewhat thankless work of

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Speaker 1: unveiling a pot roast Norman Rockwell style on the table

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Speaker 1: at six pm. But that doesn't mean that family meals

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Speaker 1: can't happen. One option is to look at breakfast. If

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Speaker 1: your kids all leave at roughly the same time, like

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Speaker 1: on a bus or in the car for school, then

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Speaker 1: maybe the adults can adjust their schedules once or twice

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Speaker 1: a week to sit down at the table at about

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Speaker 1: the same time that they do. This is often most

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Speaker 1: workable if you aim for the days that the adults

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Speaker 1: will be working from home. Everyone can eat a bowl

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Speaker 1: of cereal, but at least you're all eating it together.

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Speaker 1: Or you have a batch of muffins and a bunch

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Speaker 1: of bananas in a bowl and everyone grabs one of each.

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Speaker 1: Weekends might provide a bit more time. Older children may

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Speaker 1: not want to get up early on a weekend morning,

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Speaker 1: but perhaps you could do a family brunch on a

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Speaker 1: Saturday or a Sunday. People can divvy up cooking pancakes, bacon, eggs,

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Speaker 1: and maybe you make festive drinks. It's cheaper than going out,

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Speaker 1: and you can linker at the table longer than any

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Speaker 1: restaurant will allow. Of course, family breakfast doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: be lengthy. My guess is that you might be able

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Speaker 1: to build it into your regular morning routine. But if

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Speaker 1: you're worried about it, maybe everyone wakes up five minutes earlier,

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Speaker 1: spend five to ten minutes at the table, and compress

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Speaker 1: something else. As with most things in life, the habit

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Speaker 1: of eating together is not about making every single meal incredible.

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Speaker 1: It's about doing something regularly enough that you build closeness

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Speaker 1: through sheer repetition. If you eat breakfast most days, then

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Speaker 1: breakfast provides the occasional opportunity to build that habit just

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Speaker 1: as much as dinner does. And hey, if your household

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Speaker 1: is anything like mine, people are much more fond of

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Speaker 1: breakfast food than they tend to be of dinner foods.

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Speaker 1: Everyone likes waffles. Make some waffles and that might just

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Speaker 1: be enough to lure everyone to the table. In the meantime.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.