is there a family out there who still all eat together around the table?

[cutekids]

just wondering as it's very rare that we do. hubbie comes in fairly late at night-if he's not working away!-and i can't keep the kids waiting for their tea so they have theirs when they come home from school.

The DS's have a little table and chairs of their own and DH and I eat at the 'big' table. The kids prefer it and it keeps DS2's hands off my grub!! Much more civalised than when we all eat together though we try to do it once a week at least, usually a Sunday roast.

No...we used to (because we were guilt-tripped into it by the media insistence on telling people how to live their lives) but it didn't suit us at all. DH doesn't get home early enough for it to be practical. We have Sunday lunch at the table - the kids call it a "feast" and really look forward to it. Occasionally we do it in the evening if he's early. Generally I feed the boys bfore he gets home - we have the main dining table in the middle of the room, but we also have the boys' "messy corner" with a pine table where they eat their meals, do their artwork/playdoh etc and that corner of the room has their pictures/chalkboard etc on the wall and a little shelf of special books. They have kiddy music on while they eat, and I potter about chatting and singing to them. DH and I then have time to play with them for an hour before they go to bed - a supervised family activity like the marble run or the aquaplay, or Hungry Hippos. Then we eat together when they've gone to bed, about 7-7.30. I think it works pretty well, whatever the Kris Murrins of this world may think.

MoM,can't imagine the meeja guilt tripping you into anything!

god I agree mOm

dont see why its such a big deal tbh

cant think of anything worse than spending my yummy grown up meal coaxing food down dd1 and trying to stop them winding each otehr up over the merits of unicorns v princesses.

emperors grotty spaghetti-hoop-stained clothes IMHO

That Kris Murrin could lose a couple of pounds off her arse too...

I have tried getting DS (nearly 5) to lay the table moondog but he is clueless - obviously through lack of example. And now to completely thwart my domestic goddess efforts he has gone and got tonsillitis.

Actually I couldn't bear the thought of cooking for and feeding the kids, clearing up, bathing them and putting them to bed and then starting again in the kitchen. TBH I find it really boring sitting with them while they eat if I am not eating, so end up browsing through a catalogue or emptying the dishwasher and thus totally putting them off eating.

mine eat in the kitchen while I tidy up. rarely sit down with them. I pick at their food while I am doing it too.

you can nag about table manners just as easily while emptying the dishwasher as sitting down eating with them

we do most evenings. sometimes i don't enjoy it, i can feel quite seasick with all the moving, noise, motion around the table. and it does mean eating a bit earlier than i'd like and a bit more plain food.

but i'm sure it's helped with the dd's eating habits and on a good day it's really lovely.

Yes Enid I know but DD wants to get up and help empty the dishwasher etc. She's only 20 months. So I have to sit at the table. And then I find that unless I have something to do I am too prone to interfering with her. She ate a good plate of jambalaya last night with a fork (again her insistence) and as soon as I had finished my own I was really having to hold back from trying to help her. Spoon fed poorly DS instead. And even managed to let her get on with eating rice mixed with lemon jelly. It works for us.

Marina - what do you cook from scatch that you can have ready to all eat at once?

ATM, DS eats earlier, but that's because of the timetable between getting him in from school, getting him fed and to bed.

We eat as a family at weekends. Although, it has meant that we always eat quite simple quick to cook stuff, as I don't want to spend all afternoon cooking something to have ready by 5.30. Also, if I have cooked a nice meal I like to drink it with lots of wine - and 5.30 feels like tea, not dinner with wine.

risotto, grilled salmon, sausages, reheated bolognese sauce with spag, reheated veg curry or beef stew, pasto (ds' nickname for pasta with pesto), pork pie, homemade soup, salad, cheese and bread with h/made soup.
A lot of rather grumpy slashing of veg goes on after the children are in bed blu

Doesn't it all just go to show that different things work for different families? There are so many perfectly good ways to run a household. We don't need santimonious TV gurus to tell us to eat round the table and have "family time" on Sunday afternoons if we want our children to live past their forties - FFS!

Sorry. It gits mah dander up is all

and we have the wine later all right
sometimes a glass with dinner and the children have grape juice, like someone else said earlier on the thread.
Lorina pink lemonade or Duchy apple refresher on those oh-so-frequent champagne quaffing suppers

Blu, I've got quite a few meals that I can do from scratch in 20 mins - one or two even less than that. None of them are very sophisticated but it can be done. Do you want me to list them - or is that too boring?

ha ha, it didn't stop me bugsy. Come on, share your top recipes with us!

I always eat with the children when DH is away and we all eat together or eat out together at weekends. If DH is going to be back later on I usually cook for us when the boys are in bed. Friday is pizza picnic for boys in front of a film and curry for us. Friday is the only not a the table night.

Opps sorry Marina - must have been typing my post when you added your list!
Ok, pretty much anything with pasta: so you could have some fried chicken, pork or beef with pasta in pesto or a white sauce, cheese sauce etc with some veggies probably in about 10mins.
Fish is poached really quickly, so mashed potatoes and fish in cheesy sauce is def less than 20 mins.
Risotto, sausage & mash, ommlettes.
In fact virtually all my "every day" cooking is probably achieved in less than 20 mins, apart from anything involving a baked potato!!!

If we're all in the house, we all eat together.

We do at weekends during the day, also she and I eat lunch together on Fridays

Not in the evenings though - she eats at 5.30 to 6 and we aren't hungry (or back from work!) then!

I like to eat between 8.30 and 9.30

risotto takes at least 40mins in our house...

Hardly ever - always at weekends though (lunchtime). Tea does tend to be in front of the TV , because I have to work in the evenings from home, and dh never gets home before 7 at the very earliest, usually 8 or 9. Ds is a very fussy eater (always has been) and I just don't want to eat fish fingers, pasta, or shepherds pie every night!

Only at weekends.

Children eat at 5-5.30 during the week and dh is not in till just before 7 and that's too late for the children to eat. They are in bed at 7.15!

During the week I sit at the table with them and chat or might have a snack myself with them. But just not feasible to have a family meal during the week.

I think anyone who has their partner home early enough for evenign meal is bloody lucky - not only cos they can't eat together but all that help with tea, washing up, baths, getting PJs on etc. Blimey.

No TV in our dining area.

sorry 'can eat together'

your risotto is probably nicer than mine BK!!! I fry all the onions, peppers, little bits of carrot, courgette (etc etc) all together, then bung the rice in for a quick fry before adding some veg stock. Once its nearly cooked I add precooked chicken and a few frozen prawns & peas. That's my risotto - definitely not up to examination by a Spaniard or Italian!!!!