We don't. I want to, I think it would be good for LO, but we don't.
We both work, so I pick up LO at daycare, get home and start dinner. I feed her about 6, when he is walking in the door. Then it is bath and bed for her.
He and I eat around 7:30, usually while watching an old dvd of sienfeld or the office. Yup, in front of the tv *blush*
I said we would start eating together at the table by the time she was 1...then 1 1/2....now I say definitely by 2! lol
The thing is, I love our 30-60minutes of sitcom and dinner. We laugh at the same things and just chill.
What does dinner look like for you and LO? Do you think it is important to eat together at the table?
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Most nights! I just feed LO at the table and watch her eat when DH isn't home.....I eat after she is asleep. I do think it is important but sometimes it is easier just to hold or feed the baby while my toddler eats and makes a mess.
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Not every night, it's just not possible with our work schedules and commutes. We did last night though, even though I had the long commute day.
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DS and I eat breakfast and lunch together at the kitchen island. We eat dinner as a family at the table about 3 times a week now that I work part time evenings/weekends and DH has school on Thursdays.
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We've been making an effort to eat at the table as a family. It's a pain and I miss watching tv!
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@lizzywiz: Yep! We both work too, but I plan meals that are super easy to make. It makes sense for us all to eat together because we all eat the same meal anyway. I don't have anything else to feed LO! Most of our dinners take 30 mins or less. I work til 6:30 M-th so, they have to be fast!
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It's really important to us that we eat dinner at the table as a family. It's not always possible because DH works nights at least twice a week.
But on the other nights we do usually a minimum 4x a week?
Dh gets out at four and goes pick up LO. Then he picks me up and we're all home by 5. We give LO a snack then make dinner together or I get dinner started while DH does a few things around the house. We eat dinner by 6-6:30. One of us bathes her while the other does cleanup. LO is in bed around 7:30.
After she's in bed is when we throw in laundry watch an episode of TV etc.
How old is your LO? It's easier when they're older and eating what we eat. Because then when your DH gets home at 6 you can just all eat at the table together.
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We do, whether Mr. T is home or not. If it is just me and Lorelei for lunch we still eat at the same time as usual at the table. For supper we all eat together, and if Mr. T is still working, just the girls and I do. Sometimes I relax the no books at the table rule if Mr. T is gone, but we do still sit at the table together.
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@blackbird: lol- that is how I feel!
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We eat dinner together every single night. Most of the time on the couch
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Oh yes. This is a big sticking point for me. I've made it clear to DH from before we were married that once we have children we'd be eating together as a family every night. He wasn't raised that way, but I was and it's very, very important to me. When I was a child it was when a lot of our family bonding and conversation happened.
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We've started thinking about this a bit more. DH's family always ate at 5:30, every night, no matter what. Growing up, sometimes we wouldn't eat until 7 or so. I am not good at getting dinner ready early, and I am usually not hungry until closer to 8. I will admit that there have been more than one night this week where dinner wasn't ready until 9. I know that this won't work for kids, so I have a feeling that while we may all sit down together to eat, there will probably be nights where DH and I don't eat until later. In any event, it's going to take some doing...
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@MrsTiz: haha I miss those pre baby pre solids days! Although sometimes we will if it's a chillax, non messy, non knife using meal eat at the coffee table like the old days but with LO. But only like once or twice a month.
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We eat at the table together at least 5x a week. The other night's we have a "picnic" in the floor in front of the tv lol, its fun!
Growing up my family didn't eat together and I always thought that's what happy families were suppose to do. Once my parents were divorced and my sisters grown and out of the house my dad and I ate dinner together at the table and I loved it. I always knew when I had my own family I wanted family dinners so I'm the one having us sit together at the table. My SO goes along with it because he knows I love it but he wouldn't mind eating in front of the tv every night.
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@locavore_mama: Once LO gets here DH wants to start eating at the table everynight, so maybe we'll act like grown ups then
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@heartonastring: agree. We both think it's important to set this foundation up. It will be extremely important I think in the teenage years and helpful too!
There will come a point where life will be even crazier and more hectic and those blessed 30 minutes of dinner will probably be the only time we spend as a family all day! -
@locavore_mama: Exactly! In my house we always used that time to talk about the good and bad things in our days and to discuss stuff like current events (obviously when I was older, not when I was like, a toddler or anything!). It also tended to be the time when more sensitive issues would come up (like if I was being bullied at school) and gave us time to talk them out. Sometimes, when homework and life didn't get in the way, we'd sit around the table long after dinner and continue our conversations. I always loved that.
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We always eat dinner together at the table - always have since we met. We usually have a glass of wine with dinner, too - very civilised! Since we have had DD, we either eat after she has gone to bed or, if the timing's right, we pop her on the table in her rocking chair and she joins us. Like this (I was cooking dinner when this was taken):
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we didn't when we just had charlie. then we started doing family dinners when olive was closer to 1 and charlie was 3. now we do them every night.
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We do now. We got into the habit when I was pregnant and it was uncomfortable to sit on the couch leaning forward to eat.
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Until we moved into our new house we always ate on the couch in front of the TV. Sadie would swing or bounce. Now that we're in our new house, and have an actual dining space, we all sit at the table for dinner. Sometimes Sadie eats too, and sometimes she just sits in her chair and plays. We can see the TV from the table, though, so sometimes we leave the TV on and watch something we recorded. We still chat, so it works for us.
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We'll likely start once DD begins eating solids. We currently just have a small, bistro table in our apartment, but are in the market for a new, larger dining set, as we're moving, soon.
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DH and I eat after she goes to bed. This will have to change once she is eating more table food then purees. So far she has no interest in real food.
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We try to eat as a family. Usually I feed DS just before we eat, so then he sits in his high chair with a toy while we eat.
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We almost always eat together (unless out of the norm happens), sometime we move dinner to the living room for family movie night though so we don't always necessarily eat together at the table... In that case we bring P's spacesaver into the living room & G eats using his old Ninja Turtle tray.
Eat together is really important to us though & is part of the reason we all have such a late bedtime since DH doesn't get off until 7 and the earliest we all get home is 7:15. It's always been like this.
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Yes. DH works late once a week so he only misses dinner once a week. We grew up eating at the table as a family, and we think it's important to set the routine early. DH and i will catch up on each other's day and it's nice to interact with LO when she's seated. I think our efforts paid off because at 18 months she can stay seated at the dinner table for at least 30 minutes!
On the nights DH isn't home, LO and i will eat in the kitchen, with her on the lobster chair (attached to the island) and me on a chair.
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DH and I eat at the table together whenever we're both home, and we plan to continue this with our kids. I was raised that way and it's very important to me; DH usually went to his grandparents' for dinner but they also sat at the table as a family. I think my experience little more strict/formal than his, like I would have to ask permission to leave the table when I was finished eating and usually was told no, everyone stays until everyone is done. That may not be the most practical with young kids, but as soon as they're old enough to understand, I want to implement that rule, too.
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Not when it's just the 2 of us. But when we have my step kids we always do. When L is a little older we will start with him too.
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Baby isn't here yet, but my husband and I eat dinner together at the table most nights. Sometimes on the weekends if we get pizza or something we eat on the couch while watching a movie. I'm glad we've gotten into the habit of eating at the table--it makes us talk more and feel more connected!
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Yes, we started doing this when DS started eating more solids.
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Eating meals together is very important for us. I'm a SAHM so it's much easier to organize meals and eat at the same time. LO eats better when we're eating together. Some nights I have to start dinner without DH, but he will usually join us in the middle of dinner.
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We do as much as possible. Some nights my husband gets home too late, but if we're all home, then yes. Breakfast too, when possible.
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LO eats his dinner before us, and plays while we cook our dinner. When we eat later, he still joins us at the table, either with his dessert {fruit} or a drink, so that we can all be together.
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Always. We always had dinner as a family growing up & it's something that we do here at home.
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We used to eat dinner together at the dinner table every single night. But now DH works nights so we had to switch to eating breakfast together and LO and I are on our own for dinner. It's really hard for me I have motivation to cook something nice when it is just me and LO!
We eat dinner as a family on his days off.
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DH and I eat dinner together at the table every single night. It's tough to do with LO as well because I'd have to prep and cook dinner before DH gets home, so I'd be wrangling LO at the same time (right now we eat after he goes to bed). I'd like to work on this, as LO gets older and a bit more independent.
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We do almost every night. However, we didn't start until DS was almost 2, he ate earlier and went to bed then DH and I would have dinner.
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We eat together, but we usually sit on the couch. Once LO arrives, I'm sure it'll change (actually, we'll start eating at the table once LO eats with us). We love eating on the couch ... it's cozy, BUT we do eat too quickly.
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I do it with LO but DH is often still at work when she needs to eat. We try when we can though. I think she eats better when there are more people!
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We do. We eat earliet though. Dh and I get tv time together after ds goes to bed.
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49 comments