Do you and your family eat dinner around a table ?

[Nicebitofsquirrell]

Meal times have changed a lot in the last decade I think, parents are working longer hours, kids are doing more evening activities and the ides of eating around the table and talking about your day seems very foreign to a lot of children. It's not uncommon for primary age children to have never eaten at a table before and they've said they eat on a sofa with the telly on.

Do you and your family regularly eat around a table and discuss your day without a TV or radio on?

I used to really enjoy it when I was younger and when we stopped because of work patterns it made it much easier for me to hide my ED as no one was watching my food intake.

It's definitely something I want to bring to my family

We do it because we've got the space, and I find eating from my lap really tricky. I like sitting upright to eat. But I couldn't care less what anyone else does

Same

Meal times have changed a lot in the last decade I think, parents are working longer hours, kids are doing more evening activities and the ides of eating around the table and talking about your day seems very foreign to a lot of children. It's not uncommon for primary age children to have never eaten at a table before and they've said they eat on a sofa with the telly on.

@Nicebitofsquirrell do you mind if I ask how old you are and when you first noticed this profound social change?

It's just that I grew up in the 1970s eating my dinner on my lap on the settee in front of the telly and yet I still learned to converse with other people in many social situations about many topics. Back then my parents worked long hours and juggled their jobs so that at least one of them was always at home with us. It was the way and their parents would have been the same - without the telly.

We may not have been like the Oxo Family (That's the original ads with Katie and Philip, not the revived ones from the '80s with Lynda Bellingham) but we managed.

Not usually. The kids will eat round the table and husband and I will eat later and sit on the couch. He's not normally in from work when they are having their dinner. But now and again we will.

Is it a thing to do separate dinners though? We never did it either...why make double the work? We just ate when and what our parents ate.

Separate dinners can be due a whole host of things such though.

Like what? I understand if there are older kids with sports and other activities, or clashing work schedules etc...but what are some other reasons? Most people I know don't have separate dinner times, they eat together, regardless of the children's ages. And not in front of the TV, though that's another discussion altogether.

People home from school/ work at different times. Autistic children( or adults) who only eat their " safe foods". Allergies. And sometimes adults want to eat in peace when the kids are in bed, that's not a crime.

We don’t even have a table, don’t physically have any space for it. We eat on trays on our laps, ge really all together but some days we have to do separate meals. I know this will come as a shock to some but, believe it or not, my kids are excellent at conversing, have excellent table manners and we still have a chat about our day. You would be hard pushed to even believe we have never had a table if you were to sit down for a meal with them in a restaurant.

Well, my DH doesn’t get home until around 8 pm at night. Depending on what he gets for lunch at the canteen has a knock on with what he would like at tea time plus, we can’t all wait for him coming in. When I come in from work at 5.30, I pick up one DC to go back out to a club so the DC will make themselves something so they’ve eaten by the time I get in and turn around to get them back out. On that day, I’ll often have a bigger lunch so just toast at tea time or cereal.

Some kids might have disabilities and need a routine that doesn’t tie in with a certain meal or meal time.

And for info, I was fed food as a child and made
to eat it forcibly. I will never, ever make a child eat something they don’t like or conform to food and dining, just because it’s the way others and my parents did it.

Yes we've always done it. Even with friends we always sit at the dining table.

We don’t have a table. I mean, we do have in shed😂 I hate eating at the table, prefer sofa. Table is acceptable for me only at the restaurants or when I’m visiting someone.

Eat at least 90 minutes later than the kids but sit with them at the table when they eat. Sometimes the join me when I eat later and read / chat whatever.