To struggle to find something to talk about at dinner?

[SquirrelFan]

Especially during Covid, especially on a rainy Sunday? My DH, my DC and I sat around the table masticating as I desperately tried to think of something to say. We had very little to report on our days--I ironed and watched a film, DC (16) was on the computer doing homework and gaming, and DH did a bit of work. I'd love to live in a family with lots of chat and good-natured teasing! What does everyone talk about? Suggestions welcomed.

We went out for dinner tonight and I realised after about 25 minutes, that absolutely everything we talked about was somehow fucking covid related in some way.

So I'm following for suggestions.

The news and current affairs

Historical events and conspiracy theories

Dear Christ don’t ruin your mealtimes by having to contemplate the state of the world at the moment any more than you already have to! How about something a bit more left field - set one theme a day, make sure you and DH are prepared in advance with a couple of controversial opinions to fuel debate if necessary ...

www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/feb/14/philosophical-questions-children-should-ask-bernadette-russell

We're a bit sad but sometimes I'll print off a quiz and we'll do it together over dinner. Nothing too heavy but it breaks it up a bit.

Same here. After 6 months of very little going in, and not many plans for the future, we are beginning to run out of conversation. I think we did pretty well to get this far!! We did go to a Korean supermarket yesterday and got lots of popping candy so we did that instead of talk today!!

Yes, same here. What to do?

We have a family book club so once a week dinner is based on that even the food. We talk about sports and local happenings. Small village on island. Always something going on.

Play would you rather?

Talk about all sorts (mostly which interesting books some has read) but sussed cards are good and there is a game called wordsmithery or UNO...

Politics, work, science, art, history, current affairs - anything really.

We don't have a no phones at the dinner table rule because we use them for fact checking...

DH and I have a bit of banter/teasing. We usually talk about anything funny/serious/weird that happened at work. There might be a topic we start discussing because it’s in the news or we’ve read about in a random article- and we’ll give each other our opinion- and then add some devil’s advocate/critical thinking. We also talk about our DC quite a bit- boring but interesting to us

We talked about October - what we like and don’t like about the month, fun things we have planned to look forward to, what we’ll do instead of guising for Halloween.

Well, today there was a HUGE amount of very exciting football to talk about.
Also, all about the brilliant virtual Scout camp that has been happening this weekend.
Also about the plans for who is where, when over the next few days - making plans.

This week we have talked about the American political system, how to celebrate Halloween, how roofs are made (due to a leak), Henry VIIIs wives (studying at school), Extinction, What happens when it rains a lot, and different sorts of hair (as in straight and curly). I sometimes put on documentaries in the half hour before dinner. It is always a bit random. I find asking ‘how was your day?’ Only ever gets a ‘fine’ response so I witter away

We talk about the food, especially if it's an experimental recipe. Our days, which colleagues are annoying us. The news and what we thing will happen/should happen. Sometimes we'll update each other in the plots of the books were reading. Discuss other people we know

I have had to institute more time apart recently. With hobbies paused and working from home, at first it was quite nice to spend time together. But it eventually grew very stale. It's much better now we are doing a few separate activities.

We do quizzes or the shopping list game - youngest is only 4 tho and eldest is 13. Politics is still a bit of a challenge but we do talk about Donald trump!

Dc are 5 and 7 so they talk about nothing and I say 'please eat your tea'; 'I've cooked what you asked for, please eat it'; 'stop talking and start eating'; 'EAT' on a more or less continuous loop.

I would happily eat in silence

How much do you know about your DS's gaming? Would he be open to chatting about that? What kind of game is it, is there a plot, is it historically/scientifically accurate, what's fun and what's difficult, how does it compare to other games he's played?

Those are the kind of things my partner might discuss if he'd been gaming.

Well today we spoke about exams, football and whether we preferred roast chicken or bbq chicken.
We’ve also had ‘would you rather’ sessions, answered quiz questions. Sometimes we’ve discussed philosophical questions like is there life on other planets? Should everyone be paid the same? Do we all see colours in the same way?
Often it’s pretty mundane stuff about school and anything else that’s going on.

We play lots of games -
Guess the film
The Minister's Cat
Animal/Countries/Famous People alphabets.

Discussions about racism, feminism, immigration, climate change.

More often than not it ends in bickering and I wonder why I bother.

These are all good suggestions, thanks!

I feel like I mainly talk about table manners 🙄

Same as trilby here. Dc also take hours to eat so dh and I then wash up while trying to get the kids to hurry the fuck up and eat just a tiny bit of their sodding tea.