[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/28\/work-life-balance-after-covid\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/28\/work-life-balance-after-covid\/","headline":"Work-life balance after COVID: Keep cooking with the kids","name":"Work-life balance after COVID: Keep cooking with the kids","description":"Of all the habits learned during the pandemic, families should stick with the routine of cooking and eating together, even after COVID becomes a distant memory.","datePublished":"2021-01-28","dateModified":"2023-05-19","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/catherine-mccord\/#Person","name":"Catherine McCord","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/catherine-mccord\/","identifier":503,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/797c1fc6780546242424bc446512c21b6b76c9fcb0e0e2e54bcbd64693cd9ea2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/797c1fc6780546242424bc446512c21b6b76c9fcb0e0e2e54bcbd64693cd9ea2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/HXM08_CookingwithKids_HB_1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/HXM08_CookingwithKids_HB_1.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/28\/work-life-balance-after-covid\/","about":["COVID-19 and Business",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/employee-engagement\/","name":"Employee Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Employee_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q14937678"]},"HXM: Human Experience Management","Real Talk: Mental Health, Well-Being, and Laughter",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/thought-leadership\/","name":"Thought Leadership","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thought_leader"]}],"wordCount":989,"keywords":["COVID-19 | Coronavirus","HXM","Restaurants"],"articleBody":"Remember when one of the toughest decisions we faced most days was whether to cook dinner or try a new restaurant? With the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, it seems a return to those more carefree days is on the horizon.But before we get too excited about making restaurant reservations, let\u2019s think about some of the benefits we\u2019ve realized from spending several months cooking and eating at home with our kids. Maintaining work-life balance after COVID should include this pandemic-era routine as much as possible.Of course, it\u2019s worth mixing it up by ordering in a night or two per week and supporting local restaurants when time and budgets allow. But cooking and eating with your kids, at a specific time each night reserved for family time, offers several long-term benefits.Work-life balance after COVID: 5 reasons to keep cooking and eating togetherThe COVID-19 pandemic has shown us\u00a0that cooking and eating together is even more important than we initially thought. In can even be a lifesaver for parents struggling to balance at-home work with raising, entertaining, and educating their kids.Here\u2019s why you should continue to cook and eat with your kids, even after life returns to something resembling normal.Create less picky, more adventurous eatersIt\u2019s\u00a0important\u00a0to keep trying new foods with kids. It\u2019s easy to forget that what kids may turn their\u00a0noses up at one day often becomes a favorite food the next.Cooking together, tasting ingredients before they\u2019re cooked, and trying foods in new ways all are strategies to inspire kids to be great eaters. And let\u2019s be honest: bribery works. Try striking a bargain of five bites of a new food to bake \u2014and get \u2014 a cookie. Eventually your kids will be excited to try new things.Healthier kids Kids become better\u00a0eaters when they cook with their\u00a0parents since they had a hand in preparing the meal \u2014 this is across every culture, everywhere in the world. Kids who learn to cook eat healthier foods in healthy amounts \u2014 period.The more they play a role in the process and in the cooking, the more invested they are in the decisions. Plus, they quickly learn about their likes and dislikes, which will make them healthier eaters over the long term.Safer and smarterIt may sound like a silly question, but do your kids truly understand that the blue flames on the stove are scorching hot? Do they know how to behave safely around the stovetop and utensils such as knives, or even how heat transforms food?Odds are, they haven\u2019t given any of these concepts much thought. Divvy up meal-prep duties and you\u2019ll quickly develop safer kids, but also smarter ones. Cooking portions of ingredients and following the recipe, they\u2019ll quickly pick up basic math skills and concepts such as fractions.Work-life balance after COVID will be strongerIn our house, we have dinner on the table every night\u00a0at 6:30 p.m. It\u2019s truly the best time, coming together to share our day. Laptops, tablets, and phones are all off. And just as I pick a different spot to work from every day (such as the kitchen table, my office, or even outside) to keep things fresh and inspired, we also try to eat something different every day.      Employee well-being and productivity: Striking a balance                More paid time off, free mental health counseling, and regular check-ins via surveys: The focus on employee well-being has never been better - or more important.      Maintaining variety is as good for your body as it is for your brain; it makes that distinction between work and home stronger at a time when those lines have blurred \u2014 to an unhealthy degree for many families.Since people have proven to be effective workers from home, it\u2019ll be all the more important to maintain this separation of work and home after the pandemic, particularly for parents who choose to continue working remotely.Family bonding at the tableSo much talk during the pandemic has been about \u201csurvival\u201d or \u201cstaying sane\u201d through each day. But what about thriving in lieu of merely surviving? The kitchen table is where this can and should start.As\u00a0important\u00a0as the food may be, being together at the dinner table is the real gift. It\u2019s how families connect with each other, make memories, or even make decisions together \u2014 what Netflix show they\u2019ll watch together after dinner, what books to read before bedtime, or what the first big post-pandemic vacation will be.We\u2019re able to have these thoughtful, powerful conversations and strengthen family bonds– which are essential in times of crisis, such as COVID-19 — if we do something as simple as cooking and eating together each night.Healthy habits for long-term work-life balance after COVIDNo family or family dynamic is perfect. All of us are works in progress, and that\u2019s part of the fun of raising kids. 2020 was a more challenging year than any other, but it also presented us with the opportunity to explore this idea deeper.Plenty of habits formed during the past year will probably be with us for a long time to come:1. Wearing masks when we\u2019re sick2. Washing our hands more often (as we should have been doing all along)3. Rethinking how often we truly need to be at the officeBut arguably the most important routine we can maintain for our long-term physical, social, and emotional health is to cook and eat together as families, as often as possible.Your kids will experience the benefits of this well into the years when the pandemic is all but a distant memory. And since maintaining a healthy family is a cornerstone of the Back to Best for Parents program, I\u2019m proud to be a part of it.  HR, better.Employees, happier.Businesses, healthier.It’s time to modernize the employee experience."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2021","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"01","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/01\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"28","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/01\/\/28\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Work-life balance after COVID: Keep cooking with the kids","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/28\/work-life-balance-after-covid\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]