Mumsnet users discuss family mealtime rituals with Uncle Ben's & Dolmio

[AaronMumsnet]

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While some evenings are for a hastily prepared and eaten meal as you taxi your child around to football/ballet/karate, others are for taking the time to share the chopping and stirring, then sit down and enjoy dinner as a family. Family dinners come in all shapes and sizes and can be noisy and often messy affairs - but they’re the perfect opportunity to create family mealtime rituals and spend quality time together.

Uncle Ben’s and Dolmio believe in the power of dinnertime to bring people together:

‘We all know that one of life’s pleasures is to share a meal with family and friends where you can take time to connect with the ones that you love, but in the midweek mayhem it’s not always possible to take time to cook and eat together. We want to hear your stories, what mealtimes in your house are really like, tips and tricks to overcome barriers to a great mid-week dinnertime and the rewards that eating together can bring.’

Did you make your daughter’s first boyfriend sweat over a flaming hot chilli con carne? Is it while your kids help you in the kitchen they have suddenly chosen to open up to you about their feelings, school day, worries or dreams, or did this time together produce a mini Nigella, now boasting cooking skills and flare far beyond what you’ve taught them. Does the dinner table give rise to stage-worthy performances, perhaps an impression of their teacher so legendary that it still leaves you in stitches, even now? Or do you still brag about the famous spaghetti bolognese in which you successfully hid a grand total of four portions of veggies and hit your family’s nutrient quota for the day?

Whatever your meal time wins, and rituals might be, share them below to be entered in to a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks, and good luck!

MNHQ

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No major rituals here, but we all try and sit together at the dinner table at a set time everyday. Around 6pm weekdays and a little later 6.30pm/7pm at the weekend. I like to cook from scratch too and the kids love to help!

With my children now growing up, I find meal times a bit of a chore at the moment!

After school clubs, meeting friends etc., all seem to dictate how many people I am feeding and at what times. I find myself regularly cooking 2 different meals, so when that happens, the child who has caused the inconvenience has to help with the second meal. From chopping veg, browning meat, washing up etc. This is working for us at the moment, and it's helping my 2 girls how to cook for themselves.

We try to sit around the table has a family with no tv or games

As we are so busy, Sundays are the only real ritual. Full roast dinner in the winter, massive salads in the summer! All around the table.

My kids have a saying that they employ when discussing how much they like a meal. They say very solemnly 'mum, I'm afraid I don't like it' and after a dramatic pause... 'I LOVE IT'!

They love the drama of the pause!

Mine are teenagers so rituals are pretty much out of the window now as they all have different schedules at school, clubs, revision sessions, with friends etc. However, when they were tiny they loved being involved in cooking meals and the best bit was "stirring". Whatever was cooking, if it could be stirred they were happy and we had a small plastic stool in the kitchen for stirring duties. My youngest, who is 14, is now official gravy maker when we have a roast. He has worked his way up from "stirrer" through "junior tester" and "chief tester" and now insists on being sole gravy maker of the household! Not a bad skill to have and if he'd extend his skills to "chief tidier of his bedroom" I'd consider my job complete!!

It’s a chance for all of us to sit together and talk about the day.

I used to be a childminder and one of the children I looked after was a friend of my DD. This friend would not eat vegetables in any shape or form. Whenever I would serve up a meal, I would always put a few vegetables on the friend's plate, although she would never eat them. One day, I cooked her favourite meal - cottage pie. However, I added carrot, onion and tinned tomatoes into the meat sauce by blending them with the gravy. The friend ate every single mouthful and didn't even realise she had eaten vegetables until I told her. To be fair, I would often make cottage pie after that and, even though she knew there were veggies in the sauce, she would always eat it.

We barely ever manage, but when we do it's usually because I've made the family favourite, lasange!

Mealtimes is when we get to be together as a family, weekend meals are the best unrushed and longer. Midweek meals are best if I get a chance to prepare beforehand and just heat before serving as it's less rushed as I hate being hurried when everyone complaining about being hungry

Our current teatime ritual is me making something yummy for partner and I, and then making a similar meal from scratch for my little one - who promptly throws it all over the floor... (she's more of a breakfast kind of girl)

During the working week the kids eat their meals first, so we concentrate on getting them fed, bathed, homework done etc. then my partner and I have our meal with a little peace and quiet. However we do all eat together as a family at the weekends

Our current favourite is taco night. Especially as my husband does it all and the children will all eat it! Definitely a win for me...
They all take their own plates to the kitchen and thank me/DH for their meal and we always eat together unless I'm on a late shift.

Always have a family roast on a Sunday and we always eat tea together - no phones or tv while we eat

Every Sunday is a roast dinner, no matter how busy everyone is!

general rule is we always eat together

I only wish we had more mealtimes together. Unfortunately dh isn't usually here at dinner time, so we don't

We sit down at the kitchen table to eat our dinner and mobile phones are banned from the table given us a chance to talk about the days events and also highlight anything that needs to be addressed as a family.

We sit down for family meals at dinner on weekdays, the kids set the table and over dinner we talk about our day.

Not many rituals except we agree a meal plan together - that way everyone gets one meal they like and is involved int he planning and shopping.

Our patterns/rituals have changed as the family has grown but one thing that has stayed the same is eating together at the table for each meal of the day with whoever is at home and that has always included being in the kitchen early when given two notices that dinner will be 5/10/20 minutes then 5 mins notice at which everyone turns up before it is put out and can say how much they want of particular portions. Setting the table and pulling the table out getting a jug of water, condiments etc then handing over plates to then sit down. I've come to realise just how important having that routine has become to give the opportunity just to see each other and chat has become now everyone splits off to do their own thing.

Meal-times in our house are hectic affairs, as our experimental two year old likes to spill water into his bowl, tip his plate on his head, and use his lunch/dinner as play-dough. Our newborn also wakes up around dinner-time after a long nap, and I find myself having to eat and breastfeed all at the same time. Despite the chaos, we treasure our mealtimes as a family and use the time to reconnect and talk about the best parts of our day. We try to keep midweek meals simple by making speedy meals, or eating leftovers or food which has been batch-cooked over the weekend.

We don't have any. Meal-times depend on fitting in each person's agendas.

No phones/music or TV etc whilst we eat. It's amazing how much you can eat when you're distracted and not focusing on what you're eating. It's a nice way to talk about our days and feel like we've spent time together.

I always hide vegetables in sauces and soups. We eat together as a family and I try to get the kids to help with cooking as they eat more that way.