Family meal times

[TLV]

just how many of you actually sit down as a family to eat and how many times a week, I've always been of the mind that I wanted dd to have happy memories of us sitting down at mealtimes altogether but with work its not always possible and it was one of the things dh got narked about the fact that I expected him home on time to eat, does it really matter that much and how much importance do you put on it?

we only all eat together for lunch at the weekend as DP gets back too late to eat tea with the DC during the week. I will eat lunch with them during the day and sometimes tea too.

We have breakfast together every day and supper (or tea or dinner, whatever you call it!!) together 5 or 6 nights a week.

Always sat up at the table. We found it encouraged the dcs to eat more and have some table manners

We are lucky as DH does shifts, so for 3 days of the week he is guaranteed to be home for tea so we all eat together, otherwise I always eat lunch and tea with the DD's and he eats leftovers or pasta when he gets in.
If we want to have a ncie meal together later then I might just have a small version of what they are having (a spoon of beans on half a slice of toast for example) but I make a point of eating as well as them as otherwise DD1 won't eat!

oh yes forgot about breakfast!!

DD is almost 2.

She always has breakfast with her dad (I'm still in bed )

She and I have lunch together.

The three of us sit down to eat an evening meal at 6.00. Personally, this is WAY too early for me to eat, but DD can't eat any later and DP is fine with it as he's starving when he gets in from work, so I tend to eat a smaller plate and might have something later at around 9 or 10.

I do think it's really important if you can do it. I love chatting about our days, prompting DD to tell daddy what we did today, all sharing the same food. It's like the benchmark of the day - I notice how she's growing up and learning at suppertime.

We try to whenever we can - i think its a nice opportunity to actually sit and chat without the tv, homework, music etc etc interferring. Doesn't happen as often as i would like, and sometimes it means dh and i eat earlier than we would have preferred, but in our busy world, i think it is really inportant

That's weekdays. At the weekends I cook at lunchtime so we all have lunch together and supper tends to go by the by.

Me and the kids eat breakfast and lunch together during the week. They have their dinner together at around 5pm and I eat with dh around 8pm as he gets home late. We all eat all meals together at weekends and tend to all go out for lunch every Saturday. I couldnt keep them up to eat with us and I like to eat with dh (plus he cooks it for me so that is a bonus!).

We have dinner together every night, and lunch at the weekends. DH is reliably home by 4.30 every evening, so its not a problem.

We eat at the table in the kitchen, and have a conversation about what we've all done during the day.

Every day, every meal, always. I guess we are just lucky.

Apart from when they're at school, of course

I make an effort for us to eat together (dinner around 5pm) at least 2-3 evenings. Breakfast and lunch generally eat together although the baby may eat first as she sometimes can't wait.

I confess that 5pm is too early for me and I find it stressful. Jumping up and down to fetch cloths/drinks/tissues/mop spillages etc. dd1 nearly always leaves mid way for the toilet. So the other nights the dds go to bed at 7 ish and I have a glass of wine whilst cooking.

We're fortunate that DH & I work from home, so we have breakfast, lunch and dinner together almost everyday. When DH was in town all day, I still ate with the DCs and DH ate alone at 8/9pm. I much prefer to eat with them than mooch about like a waitress.

The DCs help lay table, chat about their things but also join in conversations that they might not otherwise hear - ie. DH - "Humphrey Lyttleton has just died", DD1 - "who's Humphrey Lyttleton?" etc.

we do, at least 5/7 nights, if not all.

I serve up al the food into bowls and put onto the table for us all to help ourselves to, with the express instruction that what you take, you eat...works well for fussy eaters!!

tis like 'the waltons' at times with us all

Breakfast - we all have together, but don't have to wait for everyone to be at the table before starting.
On weekends we generally have all meals together and, unless we're picnicing in the garden, we wait until everyone is seated and served before starting.
Weekdays I give the LOs supper at a reasonable time for them. If dh arrives home in time to join us, he does, else he and I will have supper together after the LOs have gone to bed. The exception is Friday, when we always all eat together. By then 18m ds2 is usuallytoo tired to eat properly, so I give him supper at 5 as usual and he just joins in with us later on.

As long as you regularly eat together, and make some meals special, it doesn't matter whether you do it for every meal or only a few times a week. Actually, it's draining doing it every meal - took a while for dh to be persuaded, but mealtimes are much esier and less stressful now that he doesn't rush to get home for supper every night, and LOs aren't kept waiting longer than they're able to tolerate.

we do every mealtime we are all at home. The only exception is occasionally if we have a curry at home i feed the dcs earlier and we eat when they are in bed. It is a really important part of our day and I don't ever want to lose that family time even as they grow up into their teens. It seems once you lose it, you can't easily get the family mealtime back IYKWIM

Psychomum5 - how old would you say the DC had to be before they got the concept of helping yourself and eating what you take? I like the idea of it.

We have every meal-time together. DH only works a few minutes away so he can come home for lunch, and we all eat supper at about 6.15.

How old are your kids? A lot of all that happy-family-eating-together bolleaux depends on teh age of your kids

We've eaten all together since they were babies, they are now 13 & 9.

DD is almost 5 and DTs are 2.6. I would think DD would get the hang of it but it might be a bit hit and miss with the little ones!!

every evening we sit down together other than the odd night dp isn't home
the dc's eat breakfast together
i usually sit with dd at lunch time when she isn't at nursery, ds is at school

We eat together in the evenings six times a week; on the other night dp is at work and eats later.

We've always done this and I do think it's a good thing to do; like others, we also have a no food in the living room rule (although we're relaxing this now they are older - one teenage, one pre-teen).

The best thing now is that they are also big enough to do the dishes after, thus getting some valuable sibling time together too!!!