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

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

They are not allowed to leave the table until everyone has finished their meal

My child is still small but we have already started eating together at the table as a family. It does get messy with a baby and sometimes he's not really interested in eating but I'm sure that having a good mealtime routine (no TV in the background or eating on the sofa etc) will be beneficial in the future.

phones off, ( this includes adults ) or at least away from the table. always at the table, and either the radio, or something on the tv that we can join in with such as a quiz, but encourage chatter

im an organiser except when it comes to meals! our ritual normally consists of me coming in from work and putting dinner straight on. dad helps with homework whilst i make the different meals as everyone is very picky in our house! once dinner served it normally gets pushed around the plate for half hr before i say no tv until at least half is ate. another half hr later and we are done!

I can't think of ant rituals or customs that are specific to our family.

We try to sit down as a family at least once a week and eat together. However this is not always possible with busy lifestyles- and my almost 4 month old can sometimes have a different idea!! Often I lie down so I can breastfeed him and eat myself at the same time!!

We always have a meal at the dinner table and talk about our day :)

we try and eat together on less busy days

We eat separately from the DC during the week due to DH finishing work late. However during holidays and at weekends we all sit down and eat together. We get the DC involved in setting and clearing the table and have a no toys/gadgets rule at the table.

Our ritual is that dd often has to leave the table for a poo mid meal (she is only 4 btw I hope she grows out of it!) Tbf often she is pretending just to waste time...

Sit down at the table with no electrical devices.

An old work colleague told me about her emergency tea meal which we have since adopted. It’s a last minute can’t think of what to eat type meal which consists of a pack of quorn chicken nuggets, a jar of sweet and sour sauce and 2 x packets of uncle ben’s rice. All ready to eat in about 20 minutes and really tasty.

meals eaten together and screens banned

Our kids love being involved, it is quite a pain when you have them all around your feet trying to do their but haha, but wouldn’t change it for the world!

My Dad's favourite saying was "A meal is a social occasion" and I like to think I have followed him in that. We always all eat together and sit around the table with no TV, phones or other distractions. I feel that we are a close family and that this has a lot to do with it - we all talk and tell each other about our day and what's happened - whether we are happy or sad, etc. I like to think the kids talk to us because of this.

We always eat together and the same thing. We all pitch in on setting and clearing the table.

our rituals are that every friday night in our house is curry night! I always cook a homemade tikka masala. Lovely it is too! haha

The most common meal-time ritual in our house is the persistent nagging to get DCs to switch off their electrical devices!

We always try and cook together on a Saturday night or Sunday lunchtime. Everyone prepares differs aspects of the meal and then we all sit down together. We all love food so love cooking good food too.

We always sit in the same place x

I will be honest, with four kids who all like different things I have made sure my older kids know how to cook for themselves, but on a friday and saturday night, there is no girlfriends, no mates round, no-one, for as long as possible its me and my youngsters, all sat at the table, we have dinner, usually something that the yonger ones have helped with, I say helped with its broadest meaning lol. And then we will have our dinner, with our 'Schloer wine' that my youngest calls it, and then play a board game afterwards, usually Game of Life if my youngest gets her own way!
Sometimes they moan, sometimes they want to go out and eat elsewhere and I might let them, but I do dread the days when they won't be here for our dinners.
My own parents worked on-call, and were barely there for dinners with me and my brother, so its kind of a big deal for me. :-)

No rituals here really, too many hours worked for that so it's all hands on deck

we all sit down together and all leave the table together, that is really the only ritual

My strategy is to cook a big batch of soup or a double batch of a casserole over the weekend, and then freeze some to make weekday dinners easier. Some meals can be thrown together quickly with help from store-bought ingredients, like pre-cut veggies, or a pre-made pizza dough. There are also many recipes that take less than 15 minutes.

Always at the table, all together!