We ate as a family up until 6th grade or so. Then everyone's schedules got more complicated, and we usually ate dinner separately - so I'd eat my dinner by myself and watch TV while I ate.
I do think dinner together is important, so I'd like to continue our tradition of eating together.
Did you grow up watching TV during dinner?
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
Absolutely not! Grew up eating dinner together and TV off and that continues even now. At MY house now, we have the TV on but we can't really see it from the dining table.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
Nope! Saturday's when we had pizza night was the only time we watched tv while eating.
grapefruit / 4819 posts
We did and we didn't. We ate dinner together as a family every night but we usually had our tiny kitchen tv turned on to the news in the background but it wasn't like we were all sat in front of it like zombies. This was more towards later grade school (in the earlier days it was not on) and beyond and I remember learning an awful lot about the world as a result of having the world news on every night.
That being said, for our little family, we will probably not have the tv on during dinner very often, and if it is on, only to the news.
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
Yep. My mom worked a lot and I often ate dinner by myself in front of the TV. Now, we rarely do because I really don't want that to be part of Liam's childhood.
clementine / 811 posts
No, never. Until I left for college we always ate dinner together as a family.
I think I remember once, maybe twice when mom was out at aerobics or something when dad pulled the table out so we could eat and watch tv, but that was a very rare occasion.
eggplant / 11824 posts
If something huge was going on in the world then the news would be on. Otherwise never. We ate every night at the table, as a family.
pomegranate / 3113 posts
Never. I honestly don't think I ever ate dinner in front of the TV until I was in college.
watermelon / 14206 posts
Nope...we all had to sit at the table and there was no tv in the kitchen.
grape / 78 posts
No! We had to all sit at the table and talk about our day. It is a favorite memory of mine growing up.
pomegranate / 3791 posts
generally if my mom or dad cooked (which is what happened most days) we would sit in the dining room, so no TV. But there was one night a week that there were a couple of shows on that we would watch as a family, and my mom would order pizza or let us have TV dinners, and we would all eat in the living room - it was super exciting as a kid!
nectarine / 2690 posts
Yes, but we all ate dinner and watched tv together at the same time LOL and it wasn't like that until we were all older - like preteen/teenagers.
bananas / 9118 posts
Yes, we ate dinner as a family, and the tv was usually on the evening news.
coconut / 8279 posts
Never! My parents were against it.
I plan on family dinners with J, especially when he's in school and we all have different schedules. But I also don't want to be as strict as my parents about stuff like that. It was fine and I understand what they were trying to do, but it wasn't a great memory of growing up. I think of those family dinners now and remember being forced to sit there and hating it, haha
pomelo / 5820 posts
@lemondrop: Ditto!
I grew up watching Peter Jennings at dinner 
We ate at the dinner table as a familyevery night, and the news was always on a small TV in the corner.
cantaloupe / 6800 posts
Nope! We ate dinner together in the formal dining room every night. No tv or phones allowed.
DH grew up the same way. I am proud to announce that since DH and I moved in together we have eaten dinner on the couch in front of the tv almost every single night 
pomegranate / 3716 posts
Never, always at the dining room table with the tv OFF. My parents were firm about this rule... but I know they eat dinner in front of the tv all the time now, according to my sister who still lives at home, haha.
DH and I plan to do the same one day (although currently, we eat with the tv on every single day, albeit at the dining table)
persimmon / 1313 posts
Yes, and it was mostly because my first-cousins were over all of the time and with 10+ people in the house, it's easier to have them sit in front of a TV.
I definitely wished we had normal family dinners as a kid.
cantaloupe / 6730 posts
When I was little we had an open concept living area and you could see the TV from the kitchen table. I remember getting yelled at for turning around to look at the TV behind us. Then when I was a teenager, we moved and that house didn't have the living room within sight of the dining table. Now we eat with LO and no TV, but if she's in bed already, then DH and I eat in front of the TV.
cantaloupe / 6171 posts
Yes, we usually ate in front of the tv, and not all together as a family-- my mom often worked late so my brother and I ate before my parents did. It's one of the few things I want to do differently with my family when lo is older!
grapefruit / 4136 posts
Never. We were allowed to watch jeopardy while my parents cooked but as soon as it was over we had to shut the tv off. I was allowed to see what dress vanna white was wearing on wheel of fortune but the second she walked across the stage the tv was OFF haha! One of the silliest things I loved as a kid.
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