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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we eat together as often as we can, as it is an important time to bond, talk and learn good table manners and trying new foods. I have always hidden vegetables into my lasagnes and bolognaise meals by adding an onion, pepper, carrot and courgette into the sauce, I now cube the vegetables so they are now seen, and so far have been a colourful accompaniment to a meal, I love adding a pack of golden vegetable rice as a colourful side to my meals. I still allow the rice to be eaten with a spoon, along with a smile and a happy chew makes family mealtimes satisfying and not a battle.

Not so much a mealtime ritual but a shared understanding for mealtime weekends when everybody joins in to prepare food - an enjoyable time for chats and general get together, then a favourite movie whilst eating together :)

everyone says one good thing about their day.

The bit where it is finally over.

i am cooking everyday and we eat dinner together.
It is very important for me to make my daughter see, that we have food together like a family and our ritual to burn candle when we eat the meal, it a little something changes our mood a bit and the scented candle makes it so special.

Family mealtimes are definitely the glue that helps to hold a family together.
We all love food in our house so whilst dinners are not always exciting my 4yr old Dd definitely is happy having dinner together.
It's a great time to have conversations and relax together. We definitely do not eat quickly in our home.
We also enjoy preparing and cooking the meal together. I think it gets them to eat things they wouldn't always consider as they've been involved.
I'm happy I've been able to involve my Dd from a young age, I think she would show a few grown ups a thing two with cooking.
The conversations maybe nonsense sometimes but I am happy Dd can come to us about anything. I hope the openess continues into the future

My dh gets in way too late for a family meal time which makes me very sad (it is ten thirty now but the poor thing isn't home yet!). I really miss the ritual and family time that surrounded my own childhood dinners. Instead, I read to the dc and we chat about the books. We love it!

In the week the kids eat earlier than my and DH due to work. However they do love 'helping' as much as possible with prep and serving. I try and make sure I sit down with them as they eat rather than busying myself around the kitchen.

We do simple quick family meals during the week so we can sit and talk together. We ask DD about her day, it really helps us to stay connected during a busy week

Our meal time rituals is - everyone having a part to play, DS1 sets the table, DS2 puts out the cops and jug of water, making them feel part of the mealtime and have a responsibility makes our little family unit stronger. I have a meal planner on the fridge, and if eating the meal we decide, shall we have this next week, or shall we try something else ? So as a unit we see what we would like to eat in the future, of DS1 and DS2 disagree, we have both choices (if they are sensible). In my mind a family who eats together is a strong family unit.

We sit around a table and eat together (except dh in the week, as he gets in too late to eat with the children). We say a prayer of thanks. I meal plan and the kids make suggestions. They help with the cooking although I am a bit of a control freak and find that quite stressful!

When my son was about 3 it was Christmas, and he saw the table all decorated with candles and a stressed mummy, and he obviously thought, I know what’s going on here! He started singing happy birthday to you! So we all joined in and sang Happy Birthday, dear Jeeesuus. And we’ve done it every year since!

We try and eat together everyday. DS (aged 4) sets the table and carries things in. No phones at dinner (DH looking at you).

DS always asks for pasta pesto. So I'm starting to get him involved in meal planning- he can have pasta pesto one day, but has to help decide what we have on the other days.

We mostly eat all 5 of us round a table with a lot of chatting.

My family has special rituals for when I'm away with work, they like to inform me of these, or send me photos even, which include:
No vegetables.
Freezer food or takeaways.
Phones ON the table.

So I guess our normal rituals are the opposite of that.

My most treasured ritual, if you can call it that, is my Dad's interference! Whenever my parents come and stay and I cook, my Dad is always hovering, asking what I'm putting in, how much, why. He minutely adjusts the hob, stirs things that don't need stirring and just generally meddles. I wouldn't have it any other way!

I try to once a week cook together with kids.

My favourite meal ritual is that my kids have started baking afternoon teas for grandparent's birthday's.

We have a lazy weekend dinner on a Saturday or Sunday using an idea I picked up on Mumsnet! Chicken Dipper Taco Boats - so easy, but pretty healthy & definitely delicious!
We do the prep together - bunging the chicken dippers in the oven, peeling & chopping sweet potato into wedges (also into oven!), chopping lettuce, cucumber, salad & avocado & laying it all out on table when cooking - we all grab a taco boat & fill it however we please! It's the best way of getting LO to eat veg, it takes next to no time to do & we enjoy the time together :)

We love listening to tunes at the dinner table. Mexican food = mexican music. Indian food = indian music 😀 the kids love it!

with both me and my fiance working full time and different shifts, sharing mealtimes along with our 3 year old is difficult. We also all have different tastes and diet needs.

On days when we all need dinner, I try and make variations on the same dish to suit us all. For example my daughter loves bolognaise at the moment, so as I don't get home until after 6, yesterday I used a simple sugar free Dolmio sauce and pasta for her dinner. Always adding extra mushrooms and plenty of parmesan! as she loves them. I have some of the sauce but I have courgetti with mine as I am reducing my carbs. When my fiance gets home at 8.30 I had the remaining sauce ready that I turned into a Chilli, with plenty of spice.

3 different meals, small variations and we are all happy without having to spend all evening cooking. A small thing but a major win for us when family time is at a premium!

We all cook and eat together saturday dinner time.

At this time of year a bbq, eaten outside, can't beat it.

We do struggle in the week to sit together due to clubs etc but we always make sure that at the weekend we eat together! Love a good Sunday lunch where we can all sit and eat and chat about the week

We dont really have any rituals. DS has asd and can't bear the sound of people eating so he sits in the living room and dd and I sit together. He sits with other people for lunch at school now in an attempt to desensitize himself but by the evening he's had enough. We always eat together for Christmas though and the best meal of the year is my sister's boxing day buffet.

My boys are 4 and 7 and we do try to have meals together but usually we are too rushed in the week. They eat earlier than us too, we often want to eat evening meal at 8 whilst they are tucked up in bed. Now weather is nicer we eat outdoors as much as possible and find the novelty of this encourages my youngest to eat more.