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Original poster

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

144 replies

cutekids · 23/01/2006 19:36

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.

OP posts:
Marina · 24/01/2006 13:07

My risotto also bugsy stylee

Bozza · 24/01/2006 13:09

"Bloody lucky" that DH gets in at 5.45 - 6 - the same time I arrive with the kids? And is away 2-3 nights a month when I still get in at that time with the kids and have to do the cooking, baths, bedtimes, clearing up etc on my own?

MoggyMummy · 24/01/2006 13:12

We do most night at around 6:30 unless DH has a meeting or we (DH and I) are going out. We do on weekends too if we aren't going out.

If DH is away on business then myself and DS always have our evening meals together.

Now keeping DS at the table is a totally different matter

webmum · 24/01/2006 13:34

I do it at lunch with dd2, and sometimes eat with them at tea as well, but mostly I wait for dh.

Weekends we have all lunch together, but dinner is usually a take away and a video for me and dh!!

Blu · 24/01/2006 13:38

I think I am definitely a Domestic Earthling!

Marina - re your grumpy vegetable slashing (and what more do grumpy veg deserve?) is that for the following night?

Marina · 24/01/2006 13:40

For following night. Some dishes do reheat better (well my versions do!) spag sauce, chilli, veg curry, diced husband in wine (oops)

Bugsy2 · 24/01/2006 13:46

not quite as tasty as diced ex-husband in wine - I think you'll find Marina!

Marina · 24/01/2006 13:59

I thought that was best served stuffed and very well-done to facilitate table-top dismembering bugsy

brightstar1 · 24/01/2006 14:30

We do,as long as hubby is home, I think it is really important& gets us all talking!
When your all so busy,sometimes its the only time your all together!

Bozza · 24/01/2006 14:33

at bugsy and marina. Think I might serve slightly miserable, man-flu ish husband with a side dish of wet lettuce tonight. Whadya think?

Marina · 24/01/2006 14:40

shake him well in a teatowel first Bozza. I had one of those at the weekend

GDG · 24/01/2006 14:42

I think having to do it alone 3 times a month is pretty good going, yes! And I wasn't talking about any specific individuals anyway. We are talking about being able to eat a meal as a family and, yes, I think you are lucky if you can do that during the week - most people I know don't have partners coming in till kids tea, bath etc is out of the way - and that's EVERY DAY! Of course, single parents never have someone to help so by the sounds of it, yes, you are 'bloody lucky'.

moondog · 24/01/2006 17:45

Oh God yes!
I am shattered doing all that night time routine every night alone,night after bloody night.

Crippling!

(Off to gym tonight though as soon as my mother gets here so will escape it.Hurrah!!!)

lazycow · 25/01/2006 10:11

How on earth anyone manages this every day is beyond me.

Even when I was home FT ds who loved his solids from about 7 months on would want lunch at 11.30am and dinner at 4.30 pm as he was often asleep by 6pm even at weekends this was difficult to fit in with.

Now at 14 months he has lunch around 12pm and tea at 5pm (still 4.30 though if he is really clamoring for it). We eat breakfast and lunch together at the weekends. Weekdays is difficult as we live in a small flat and sitting down together means moving tables/chairs etc and having to clean the carpet in the living room - much more hassle than the kitchen. There is no room in in the kitchen for more than the high chair.

Evenings it is pretty impossible to get us all fed and ds bathed and in bed by 7pm which is when he is really ready to sleep so we tend to eat after ds goes to bed.

Growing up we always had dinner together (mind you my dad was home from work at 5.30pm and we ate at 6pm) and also luch at weekends so I really want to do this. Am hoping as ds gets older we can do this more often though it is pretty unrealistic to expect us to do this every day.

iota · 25/01/2006 10:14

not a chance in the week in our house - dh won't be home until 10pm tonight

puddle · 25/01/2006 10:17

We do as often as possible. We manage it probably four nights out of 7. It's usually a lovely time of day but my kids are pretty good eaters so I don't have that stress. My family always ate together so it never occured to me to do otherwise.

HATED eating with them when I was a teenager though. We often had the 6.00 news on and my Dad and I would inevitably get into a Telegraph v Socialist worker type arguement. My Friday night treat was to be allowed to eat supper in front of The Tube.

angelsmummy · 25/01/2006 12:01

Just joined mn,and found this to be an interesting topic, my dd is 3 and the most terrible eater in the world! Tried everything! The way to tempt her (that "seems" to work!) is on the living room floor on a picnic rug, with teddies around her. Sadly my dh is never home before 7pm so teatime was only the 2 of us anyway. Its probably wrong to give in to her but she would genuinely go hungry rather than eat at the table, and I was at my wits end! Has anyone been through this?

Misspiggy · 25/01/2006 13:41

We manage 5 or 6 nights a week but I know my DSs would much rather eat sitting on the sofa in front of the TV and sometimes, when DH is working late we do this as a treat!

MrsE · 25/01/2006 13:45

We eat together every night round the table. During the week we have no TV but at weekends it is on. It's only on very rare occassions that we have tea in front of the TV, and DD never eats alone apart from breakfast.

motherinferior · 25/01/2006 13:51

I try and get us all eating together as much as possible - DP would be quite happy with a permanent Meal Apartheid and letting the Inferiorettes eat in front of the telly. In practice that means breakfast, Friday supper if DP's in by around 6.30, and lunch and supper (at around 6 to 6.30) during the weekends. It does get on my nerves, especially if DD2 saunters away from the table - I feel I'm constantly coralling kids, pointing out to DP that he's reading (and that the Economist counts as reading, whether or not he says it's technically News), and I miss eating lots of food with chilli in. Sometimes it's quite nice, though.

ggglimpopo · 25/01/2006 14:01

Message withdrawn

Misspiggy · 25/01/2006 14:02

Meal apartheid MI! My DH is exactly the same and would love him and I to eat on our own plus, as I said, the boys much prefer slobbing on the sofa or eating on their own. I sometimes wonder if I'm fighting a losing battle!

ggglimpopo · 25/01/2006 14:07

Message withdrawn

childern · 25/01/2006 14:08

hi, even if its just me and the kids we eat at the table seems less mess to clean up when they have gone to bed. My youngest is a bad eater like the idear of the picnic might try that one THANKS.

puddle · 25/01/2006 14:11

We sometimes (on a cold wintery Sunday when it's dark early) have a dvd on at 5.00 and the kids are allowed to have what we call a 'picky' tea - eggs, hoummous, carrot sticks and grapes, crisps etc - in front of it. It is a HUGE treat.