Is this normal? Family etiquette of an evening...

[musicalfrog]

My partner and I generally spend the meal cooking time together in the kitchen, chatting about our days etc. While the kids are in the front room watching tv/squabbling etc.

Is this normal? I grew up in a single parent household so not sure if one of us should be with the kids.

They are both KS2 age.

As long as one/both of you can jump in if they sound like they're killing each other it sounds just fine.

It's normal for your family. I think it sounds nice you and dh have a bit of joint time. As long as kids are safe and OK off course.

It's not going to harm your children if that is what you are wondering and as they grow up they may even start joining in with cooking and chatter.

It's not how we did things. Both of us are from 2 parent families so we just did what we saw our parents doing tbh.

I'd try to get them involved in the cooking sometimes. But a lot of it depends how long you're away cooking/chatting I suppose. All night and it'd be an issue to me, but 45 mins would be fine.

That's what DH and I do. We find it's the best time to talk out our plans, put things in the calander, make lists for upcoming events, talk about our day etc.

By the time we've done dinner with the kids and the bedtime routine, it's quite late before we sit down, and sometimes we are just tired and want to switch our brains off a bit.

We both grew up in single parent households, so it's not something we saw modelled, but we find it's helpful to us.

Thank you this is exactly us too. After bedtime it's just too late and all we want to do is veg in front of the telly!