Families that play together, stay together

With International Day of Families around the corner, UAE-based parents let us in on the secret to spending quality time with the kids. and teaching them to say 'yes' to healthy choices

Parenting is not for the faint-hearted. Parents have to not just ensure that their kids are always properly fed, clothed and happy - today's modern world brings with it completely new problems to worry about. Are you giving your kids the right amount of access to technology? Are you keeping them healthy enough? Is their food gluten-free? Is that even necessary? And how important, exactly, is it to do activities as a family?

These questions are doubly important in a fast-paced country like the UAE, where working parents rarely get to sit down for dinner with their kids. To shed more light on the importance of family bonding moments, the theme for this year's International Day of Families on May 15 is 'Families, healthy lives and sustainable future' - one that definitely needs attention. So this week, we speak to busy UAE-based parents and learn how they manage to do it all, whilst teaching their children the importance of healthy eating.

For Michael and Louie da Costa, it's always a challenge to squeeze in family time with their kids, 4-year-old Vincent "Vito" Michael and 10-year-old Ana "Manixa" Alexa on account of how they both have hectic, demanding jobs - Louie as a presenter with Filipino radio channel Tag 91.1 and Michael as the managing director of Digital Creations. "We sneak in time whenever we can," confesses Louie. "If there are ever free hours in the day, we'll play games with the kids or take them out. On weekends, whenever we don't have an event, we go out with the entire family, including my parents who are here in Dubai."

So what activities help the busy family bond? According to Louie, it's shopping. "We always shop for groceries together," she laughs. "That way, whatever is served at home is something everyone will like." Other activities that the da Costas enjoy are trying new restaurants, going for movies together, visiting the park when the weather is good, and ensuring that they have a meal together at least once a day.

"It's good family bonding," explains Louie. "Not to mention that you get to monitor how much your kids are eating"

Louie is the first to admit that she and her husband used to love their junk food a bit too much. However, as the kids grew older, they realised that they would just have to start eating healthier. And her sure-fire solution to making the kids eat the good stuff is to use a good deal of nagging.

"Sometimes it's the only way to get them to eat their vegetables," she jokes. "But honestly, it all starts with what kind of food you have available at home, so making sure you shop for the right kind of food is important. We plan out meals for the next 3-4 days, making sure each meal has both meat and veggies, and we shop for that. We also pick up a lot of nuts, seeds and fruits so there's no 'naughty food' for us to grab."

However, having the healthiest food in the house doesn't mean the kids are going to like it. "It's a good thing that they teach kids about healthy eating in schools nowadays," says Louie. "But no matter how you convince them that vegetables are good for them, getting them to eat it is another matter. So what we do is chop them up and mix it into rice." The old hiding-the-healthy-stuff trick that parents love to use.

It is definitely an easy way for entrepreneur Ernest Buckwell and his wife Laura, who works as a news anchor for City7TV, to get their finicky 2-year-old Marnix, interested in his food.

"Marnix is unfortunately a very fussy eater. He loved eating avocados and spinach when he was a year old, and now he absolutely despises anything green," confesses Laura.

Her solution? Chop 'em up and add them to the dishes, of course. "I hide the vegetables in wraps or lasagna which are usually very filling. To encourage the whole family to eat healthy, it is important for everyone to feel satisfied with hearty food rather than rabbit food. I think it's also very important to sit together as it promotes healthy eating - Marnix is more likely to try different foods if he sees us eating it! A lot of praise and clapping helps."

Family time is important to the Buckwells. With Ernest being an entrepreneur, his work can keep him busy 24/7, while Laura works three times a week with pretty unsociable hours. To compensate, they ensure they have at least one day dedicated to family time every week - no mobile phones allowed!

(Centrepoint, the region's largest family fashion retailer, has launched a campaign to help families engage in uninterrupted quality family time on May 15. The campaign is called "Gift your time" and encourages people to spend time with loved ones instead of spending money buying them gifts.)