Yes, always have, even before we had kids or lived together. I grew up this way and so did H, I want out kids to also. If H works late or travels, I will generally sit with LO while he eats a toddler meal, then I will eat something by myself in front of the tv after he goes to bed, but any time all 3 of us are around I like to sit together at the table.
We also generally follow a 'only eat sitting down' rule. This helps avoid zoned out snacking because you are bored, and helps keep messes to minimum.
We never did pre-baby, and didn't until he started eating solids. Now we make it a point to eat at the table together. I'm not sure how this will change as kids get older, I potentially return to work, etc. He goes to bed at 8pm right now, so it's easy to fit it in before he goes down.
I definitely want family dinner at the table to be a thing for us, it's something we both did growing up, and it's important to me that he learns to set the table properly, sit at the table, enjoy his meal and conversation, ask to be excused when he's done, help clear the table, etc. I figure we might as well start now with those habits, at least as best we can.
Then I don't need to worry about cooking dinner after he's down, we can just tidy up and veg and catch up on TV (and eat ice cream).
I guess as city folk, we probably don't have much choice. We don't have a separate dining room, so it would be a huge pain to pull out the table.
I can't wait to have a real dining table again. And my very own washer and dryer that I don't have to share with ANYONE ELSE.
I don't mind sharing the washer and dryer since it means I can do two loads of wash and two dryer-loads at the same time. If I ever moved to a house, I would insist on TWO washing machines, minimum.
Yes, this is how I always ate growing up while my H was the opposite. He comes from a large family though so they kind of ate at all different times on the couch in front of the tv. We eat at the table together pre-kid and after but the tv is usually on too.
We do, but not with DD (we feed her dinner on her own - usually our leftovers from the night before - then cook and eat after she goes to bed). Dinner is our alone time.
We will occasionally eat in front of the TV if there's a major sporting event DH doesn't want to miss (e.g. World Cup), but generally we eat at our kitchen table. The rest of the night, we're either taking care of DD or on our respective electronic devices, or watching something on Netflix, so this is when we usually catch up.
I am sure at some point, we will have dinner with DD when she is old enough for a later bedtime, but as it stands now, it is just too hectic to get dinner for all of us on the table before her bedtime.
Yes. It's more practical in this house. In the last house we still had an eat-in kitchen, but it was open to the LR and "we" ate there while DH fell into the TV. Now it's a tighter squeeze, but it's still an eat-in kitchen closed off from the LR.
We move to the dining room if we have company. And we have let DD eat at the coffee table on occasion.
Yes, we eat family dinner every night, either at home (I cook) or at a restaurant.
DD takes a later nap (2-4:30) goes to bed later than most (start bedtime routine at 8), though, so it works out for us. She has a small snack after nap then dinner around 6:45.
Post by scribellesam on Jul 11, 2014 15:05:03 GMT -5
Yes. Sometimes DS has already eaten (he suffers from serious hanger tantrums so he eats when he wants for now) but we still have him sit with us for a little while at least.
Post by gibbinator on Jul 11, 2014 15:05:53 GMT -5
Pre-kid, 50% of the time we ate at the table together. The other half, I was either working nights, or we vegged in front of the TV. Now we eat all meals at the table 99% of the time. Occasionally we'll eat and watch a movie with ds if we're very tired of he's been exceptionally difficult all day, but that is probably only once a month.
Nope. DD is READY.TO.EAT when she walks in the door from daycare at 5:15. Not a snack, full on dinner. She eats leftovers from the night before (and pouches lol) at 5:15. We sit/stand/cut fruit/talk to her while she eats dinner then we all enjoy 5:45 to 7 together as a family. I cook dinner after she goes to bed at 7. H and I eat at the coffee table at 7:30 while we watch Jeopardy.
I've gotten shamed for this before, but it's what works for our family right now. Quality time doesn't have to happen at the dinner table and I'm not going to stress about my 1yo's schedule not coinciding with family dinner.
ETA: We do all eat together at the table on the weekends sometimes! And TV is not on at all during the week when DD is asleep. (Look at me, defending my choices like I said I wouldn't. lol)
All of this! Snack at daycare is at 2:15 so by 5:15 he is ready to kill someone. We both sit with him while he eats and I'll snack a little if it's something yummy but we eat our real dinner on the couch on TV trays after he's asleep.
Growing up I had dinner with my mom and siblings every night but my father was never home in time. I'm psyched N gets to spend time with both his parents most days,
Before DD1 started eating real food, we didn't. We used to watch the daily show every night on the couch eating dinner. Once DD1 was 6 months and eating too, we moved to the dining room. We eat dinner at the dining room table together every night.
Yes, every meal. Occasionally snacks are consumed in the kitchen, but 90% of the time those are also at the dining table.
We eliminated the eat-in area of our kitchen that the previous owners had in favor of a more functional layout and more much-needed cabinetry. We don't regret it at all. The formal dining room is a matter of 5 more steps and this way all the kids' messes are contained on one floor. It has worked very well for us. DH and I also feel strongly about no screens during dinner, so we've never done dinner in the living room.
Even if the kids have already eaten a snack and aren't hungry for dinner, we have everyone at the table together. This wasn't any intentional rule we set out to create, and the kids aren't always in their seats (but are on our laps), but it's been a nice way to transition them into dinnertime. We now all eat together at the same time the majority of nights, which is really nice. I'm hoping this flows easily into one of those family dinner "how was your day?" daily catch-up things since DS is starting to have a memory of what he did today, not just repeating his favorite dump truck story from 2 weeks ago.
Yes we do. Growing up, my dad worked crazy hours, so my mom would always have dinner ready when we got home from school, so everyone just ate whenever we got hungry. I would say we ate as a family 1-2 times a month. I always wished we were the kind of family that had dinner together every night.
When DH and I got married, he was on 2nds, so again, I would jsut eat dinner alone whenever I was hungry. By the time we had DD1, Dh was back on days, and I couldn't wait to have dinner as a family. I love that time of day now!
Post by SallySparrow on Jul 11, 2014 16:02:15 GMT -5
We never did until A. And if it's a night where we don't eat until after she goes to bed, we don't. We like eating in front of the.t.v. But if we're eating at the same time we use the table. And her high chair is one of the space saver ones that attaches to a chair, so she's always at the table.
Yes. We started doing family dinners as soon as DD was on solids and began eating the same things we do. It's really important to me that we make time to sit down and eat together as a family.
Pre-kids, and living in NYC, we barely had anything that qualified as a proper table.
Now we have a huge home in the suburbs (well, you know, by comparison) so family dinners are our Norman Rockwell norm. Make that Norman Rockwell plus three sets of Apple Igadgets. We're not perfect.