Do you or did you eat dinner with your children?

[RedRobyn2021]

DD is 3 and we always have eaten breakfast lunch and dinner at the table together (unless she's at preschool then she has lunch there). This does mean dinner for her has been quite late so she could eat with her dad when he's home for 5:45/6

I've noticed a lot of parents don't do this, that their kids eat early and then the parents eat later

Just wondering what other people's set up is and why you've chosen that way

It’s one of the only routines in the house - everyone who’s home at dinner time eats together.
We have done this since the dc we’re about 2 or 3, I don’t really remember, I’d sit with them during their meals before that but as an adult I don’t want to be eating my dinner at 5pm!!
Once they were 2/3 they ate at 6 and now we tend to eat around 8pm - works for us.
No one takes a meal to their room to eat on their own, we all sit up at the island in the kitchen, telly off unless there’s a very important match on 😂 and just time to reconnect and catch up on the day with everyone. It’s a really important time for us.
Probably get 2 or 3 nights a week when it’s all 5 of us, often we have an extra one in the form of a visiting boyfriend or friend and equally often we have one or two missing.

Always ate all together. It was how I grew up and it never occurred to me to do otherwise.

I was a sahp and H worked a 30-minute cycle from home, so eating at 6:30 worked for us.

(Mostly. There was a period where we ate at 7:30 on Wednesdays, and a few years when Thursday was complicated... but even then we would all sit down together.)

oh, breakfast... complete opposite. Eat it when you can

Again, it's how I grew up.

Yes mostly we all eat together about 4.45-5pm. Some days if DD is particularly hungry / tired I feed her a bit earlier than us, or occasionally if I really fancy cooking something spicy / salty on a weekend I feed her earlier and we eat a little later.

I cook one meal, plus a few additions on the table that can be picked at. E.g. I might make steak, potatoes and broccoli as the meal but on the table there will be a sharing plate set out of raw carrot sticks and hummus, some chopped up fruit and bread and butter. DD will usually eat all her meat and then a bit of the other options on the table. I'm fine with that. I want her to have a balanced meal at the end of the day, and I don't stress if she doesn't want the exact meal I've plated up for her. There will always be something she is happy with to have alongside it.

Always. Dinner at 6-6.30pm. Dc ate what we ate nearly always. I never got this cooking 2 meals rubbish, 1 for kids, 1 for adults, nonsense.

We eat supper between 7 and 8pm and main meal around 4pm. No fannying around with dirty dishes after 5pm. And no going to sleep on a heavy stomach. Asleep 10pm most nights, sometimes earlier.

We eat together at 6. Dc need something after school, but it is something small enough to still want dinner.

It's the thing that wrecks my head the most. I'm rarely home before 6. To get all the homework, clubs, meals all done in a reasonable time is really tough. It's getting easier as they get older (youngest is coming up 7) and are out of nursery but I still screw it up quite often and find that dinner is way too late.

I get them to make their own tea on at least one or two nights so that they've eaten early. This is usually something on toast or eggs or noodles through the week when they have a sports club or swimming lesson to go to. On a Friday it'll be a bit of freezer tapas or pasta carbonara before Youth Club.

The rest of the week we try and eat together but dh and I mostly eat vegetarian food and they're not so keen on doing without meat. I cook plain grilled meat as a side dish and we have the same carb.

If anyone ever has a good solution to fitting the evening jigsaw together I'd love to know it!

Yes, we eat as a family together every evening.

Same growing up.

Really, really important.

In my family my dad always ate alone as soon as he got back from work, he'd make a pizza or ready meals. Unless we had a takeaway.
Me and my mum would eat an hour or two later. She'd usually make something from scratch for us like prawn stir fry.
Then on weekends my mum cooked a sit down lunch for us all, always to my dad's request. So we ended up with rubber steak, no gravy, served with chips, mash and grey overcooked green beans! Or very tough roast beef. Haha!
Then when he passed away when I was 13 me and my mum bought and cooked our own individual meals.
Neither of us can bear well done beef now!

Yes we eat together and have the same meal. Works well for us, kids are involved in meals and clearing up, eat a wide variety of food, and have learnt table manners.We often have some of our best conversations round the table.

Also means that the evening is free then for the adults to do some exercise/hobby etc as no cooking/clearing up twice.

When mine were tiny we did two sittings, early dinner for them, and we ate later. But we always sat down with them and nibbled something ourselves at the same time (no wonder I put on weight!).

As they got older we transitioned to all eating dinner together.

Pretty much always had dinner together, usually between 6:30 and 7 except for Sundays when I'd cook lunch instead. That's been the case since they were tiny. DD has been veggie since she was about 9yo so I'd make sure there was something suitable, whether that was either a complete veggie meal for all of us or a veg option for her. Very occasionally I couldn't face cooking so we'd have a pizza and movie night in front of the TV but that was rare.

My DCs have both grown up and moved out but they've both said they really appreciated having that time to sit down and chat as a family. On the whole I miss it, although doing the meal plan every week could be a bit of a chore.

I have always eaten with the kids in the evening, with dinner being at about 6.30pm after nursery pick up. Husband then ate later when he got home from work.

Breakfast has always been more fluid - kids eating while I pack lunches/bags/get ready. Weekend breakfasts have often been everyone sitting together.

Lunch is mostly eat apart. Either because they're at nursery/school or because we all have different things, or because they mostly make it themselves now.

I think it's really important to eat at least one meal a day together sat at a table. Teaches table manners, prompts conversation, brings the family together.

We do same as you OP, only day she eats alone is when she has swimming lessons as she goes to brownies straight after and isn't home until after 8.
We've always eaten with her, at nursery she'd have a dinner there at around 5, we'd eat around 6:30 and give her a small portion.

That's nice I've been wondering about maybe doing this

Thanks

I have friends whose kids the same age eat at 4:30 so they think it's really late. I guess it's a perspective thing.

That other mum sounds ridiculous

When I was a kid we ate late because my mum got home from work late and we ate in front of the TV

Well she's with me all day but her dad is at work and she'd barely get to see him if we didn't eat breakfast and dinner together. I've pushed quite hard for it, but ironically I don't think my DP even cares either way and would go along with whatever.

I made this rule no phones at the table and he's constantly going on his phone because he "has" to do something. It really annoys me because it only takes maybe 10-15 minutes to eat and I don't think it's a big ask.

We had a house rule that if anyone got on their phone during dinner then that person was doing the washing up.

Sounds like you're bending over backwards to try and do everything

Have you tried occasionally doing slow cooker meals? Or when you or your partner have time to cook doing larger batches and freezing? I double up a lot and have found some containers from Asda that are good. Not everything works for reheating but the old classics of chilli, bolognese, cottage pie all work well, I've also found risotto reheats fine or sometimes I make up batches of pasta sauce with lots of veg and beans in, then just need 15 minutes to cook up a bit of pasta.

Failing that my go-tos are beans on toast & eggs and soldiers which always go down well and are so quick

He does the washing up anyway so I don't think that one would work for us haha

Good rule though

I agree so much with this

It's so frustrating how many places don't offer anything other than X and chips

There are a few I've been to where they do the same food but smaller portions and I think it's wonderful

Yep, always. Both my husband and I were bought up with family dinners and it's something we enjoy with our daughter too. We'll keep it going for as long as is humanely practical!