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We were just in a pleasant phase (maybe a growth spurt?!) where ds was eating so much. It was nice. Now he's back to barely eating and throwing every thing. Tonight was so annoying.

All over the place. Generally it's pretty good, she's a good enough eater that I can not stress about how much she eats. But she can still just be such a pain- squishing her peas or smearing sauce on the table or sticking her fork times in the straw cup. Generally everything with her can be a pain right now.

It's pretty rough, but going out to eat is much worse. F tries to get up a million times and the baby protests the highchair.

When we all eat together (so Saturday and Sunday, either brunch or dinner), they eat so much more food and are very well behaved. When they eat alone.....not so much. Lots of up and down, picking at food, playing with food/utensils, occasional tipping plates/cups...it's not pretty. Oh, and apparently just mama isn't good enough, because I eat breakfast and lunch with them every day, but sons if the antics still apply.

It's like a hostage negotiation. Try one bite, don't put the food in mommy's glass, etc

Going out to eat is so much easier for some reason. I don't understand the restaurant juju but I wish I had it at home.

I just want to add, I will Be strapping her into a high chair or booster forever. When she is just in a chair she gets so distracted, but in the booster chair she has to stay and focuses way better. Luckily she doesn't protest the seat too much or i would lose my mind.

Before we had the second baby, dinner was generally pretty pleasant - we'd all sit together, our son was generally pretty good about eating, we'd have a nice chat. Since #2 came along its a lot more hit and miss - if he's asleep then we can sit and eat together, if he's awake he's crying and my husband and I have to alternate who eats, which seems to upset our older son and make him more difficult.

I try not to stress about what she's eating and once she's done she can get out of her high chair and play. I'm still nursing at 19 months though which may help me feel reassured even if she didn't eat the greatest at dinner she's getting what she needs!

Hahahahahahahaha ... Not a chance. We hate dinner, and often wish we didn't need to feed them

Sometimes it's totally fine, other times it's just awful. DH and I are crossing our fingers that our second son is a better eater than his brother.

Nope. Basically the same as your house. We hate it but I do think it is important for us to eat together sometimes. We aim to eat together at least 3 times/week and the other 3-4 times/week we just eat after LO goes to bed so we can actually enjoy our food haha

@winniebee: Oh I hope my husband knows better than to ever say that!

I.mean it's not horrible. It usually "starts" with DD2 screaming continously for the last 15 minutes of me getting dinner ready. I sit everyone down. DD1 complains that she doesn't like dinner and asks for something else. I say no and get both girls some water. I sit back down . DD2 needs something else. I get it and sit back down. DD1 has left the table and come back like 5 times. DD2 is whining again for unknown reason. DD1 wants me to hold her but I've only taken like 3 bites and I'm hungry. DD2 is finished and crying, DD1 has had a total of 4 bites on a good day, and I have barely eaten. I finish my dinner while DD2 cries at my feet and DD1 climbs all over me and complains about how she wishes we were eating something else. I hate dinner time. When we're put it always goes well though

Pleasant is definitely not a word I would use to describe it - although LO is much better behaved out at restaurants or other people's homes, so I can't complain really.

It isn't horrible either....it's just herding cats. LO would never eat if I didn't force her to, so it's a simmering battle between eating and playing/doing absolutely anything else in the world but eating. It always turns into a hostage negotiation, and it's just tiring and frustrating.

It's not horrible, but I definitely wouldn't call it pleasant either. They do eat, so can't complain there... but it's a lot of, "mommy, can you get me some milk?", "mommy, I need a napkin", "mommy, I need to GO POTTY!!!!", "mommy, I dropped my spoon!"... and so on and so forth. I feel like right when I sit down and am about to put a bite in my mouth, I get right back up again. And finally, when I'm all settled in and everyone has what they need... they are done!

Yes.

While not everything goes smoothly with a 3 year old and a 15 month old I really like the social aspect of it. And while it is a PITA to remind my DS a thousand times over to stay in his seat after he is finished but not everyone else is, he also talks about his days at dinner and it is usually the time of day (or at the breakfast we all have together as well) that we talk about plans etc. We are lucky though that our kids are not overly picky eaters. So we don't have this aspect to worry about. And my 15m DD smacking her lips because she likes dinner is just about the cutest thing ever.

Dinner time is a disaster because of our 2 year old...

It's funny you said you thought you've been doing it wrong because I just told dh this same thing last night.

I have had to adjust my expectations. Once I did that, it's been better. And just as an aside, our best meals as a family are breakfast on the weekends.