Wait for the food

#wait#food#meal#plate#patience

Hungry, with an empty plate in front of you, waiting is the heaviest part of the whole meal. Nobody can say how many minutes are left, and time feels twice as long as it is. The visual support below gives the wait a shape and a visible end.

With hands folded at the table, a boy waits while a steaming bowl of pasta arrives.

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Boy waiting for his food

With hands folded at the table, a boy waits while a steaming bowl of pasta arrives.

About this visual support

Hunger shrinks patience faster than almost anything else. A child already sitting at the table has nothing to do with their hands, nothing to look at and no idea whether food arrives in two minutes or twenty. A sense of time is shaky for many children on a good day, and a rumbling stomach does not improve it.

Visual support helps by turning the wait itself into something that is happening, rather than a hole between the order and the plate. The pictures can show the food being cooked, the table being laid, a drink of water and the meal arriving last. Give the hands a job that belongs to the meal at the same time: folding napkins, laying out cutlery, pouring water for everyone. Waiting passes faster when it contains something that genuinely belongs to the food.

At home you can keep the meal as a routine in Routined and put a timer on the cooking step, so the child can walk over and check how much is left instead of asking.