How old are you kids and how often do you eat dinner at home as a family?

[Anonymous]

14 and 8 year old. Maybe 1 or 2 nights a week. If we are lucky. Everyone has activities.

[Anonymous]

Only a 3 y/o. Work outside the home. Eat every night 6-6:30 with the help of a crock pot and a pressure cooker. We get home at 5:45-6:15, and he's in bed at 7ish. It was a priority for my husband growing up, we'll try to maintain it as a principle. Growing up for me was much harder - either I cooked for 3 other siblings or we are in the car before or at dance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are 2 and 4. We have dinner together every night.

I grew up in a family of 5 kids with a large spread in age and lots of activities, and my parents absolutely prioritized family dinners. In practice, that meant we ate late after my siblings returned from activities and my dad from work. I was one of the youngest, so in elementary school, I pretty much ate dinner then went straight to bed. There must have been nights my older siblings missed dinner, but they were few and far between. I remember my sister having to rearrange her work schedule to be home for dinner when in high school.

I really really value having had those dinners, and plan to make family dinners a priority as my kids get older.

Very similar to our family. We have five children. 24, 21, 20, 18, and 12. The four oldest are grown and gone. Sitting down together at the table for supper has always been a priority. We sit down and eat together at least four or five nights a week. I've had to serve supper much later than I would have liked many times, but it's important. I would go so far as saying that insisting on family suppers around the table was probably the most important thing we did as parents.

[Anonymous]

Growing up with 5 siblings - we did eat most nights until HS and sports/jobs got in the way. Father also traveled extensively. When we were able to all be together, we would sit around for a long time discussing/arguing/talking/sharing. Still very close to all sibs.

Have tried to institute that with my kids college age, 13 and 11 but crazy schedules (manly travel sports) makes it not happen more than it does. Again, though when we are able to all sit down together it tends to be long and lingering.

[Anonymous]

Age 8, eat dinner together at least 5 nights/week. He does sports/activity almost every night, but we work around that.

[Anonymous]

Three kids, two in high school and one in college. We've always made family meals a priority. Generally make dinner at home with everyone (other than the college kid) about 4 nights/week. Other nights are catch as catch can, depending on everyone's schedule. I work late two nights a week; usually at least one of those nights DH makes dinner or orders pizza and eats with the kids. Sunday evening we almost always eat a proper meal together, something a little more effortful like chicken, chops, beef stew. I somehow feel like I've started the week off right if we do this together as a family.

[Anonymous]

Kids now 17 & 19. Dinner together almost every night (until college). Sports are usually done by 6:30 except for some games. We usually try to spend at least 45 minutes together at the table. I credit this with very good relationships between the two kids and kids-parents. Sometimes evening lessons/meetings cut dinner down to 30 minutes. Both kids have/had multiple activities/sports but we have been able to work that in. Try something like Table Topics cards for the nights when conversation lags. No electronics at the table (except occasionally to look up some fact related to something we were discussing). When the oldest was getting ready for the SAT/ACT sometimes we would go over "SAT words of the day," and that would often cause us to veer off to some interesting discussions. It is work some nights, but worth it and amazing how many times we get to the end of a full dinner hour together.

[Anonymous]

Every night. Kids are 8 and 11. Lots of activities but we work around it. Some nights we don't eat until 8 so they have a snack. It is very important to us so we find a way.

[Anonymous]

DH and I both work full time
Kids are 12, 9, 6 and 5
we eat dinner together just about every night. Maybe a few times a month one kid will be at a friend's house for dinner. We schedule dinner just like other activities. The kids have activities right after school and the 12 and 9yr old has some in the evening but we can usually sit down for dinner between 5 and 6pm.
One key to this is we have very short commute times. DH is 15 min and mine is 5min. I think this is key to making our lives workable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids now 17 & 19. Dinner together almost every night (until college). Sports are usually done by 6:30 except for some games. We usually try to spend at least 45 minutes together at the table. I credit this with very good relationships between the two kids and kids-parents. Sometimes evening lessons/meetings cut dinner down to 30 minutes. Both kids have/had multiple activities/sports but we have been able to work that in. Try something like Table Topics cards for the nights when conversation lags. No electronics at the table (except occasionally to look up some fact related to something we were discussing). When the oldest was getting ready for the SAT/ACT sometimes we would go over "SAT words of the day," and that would often cause us to veer off to some interesting discussions. It is work some nights, but worth it and amazing how many times we get to the end of a full dinner hour together.

OP here. Our kids are 9 and 11 and this is exactly what I want to maintain as they get older!

[Anonymous]

I have a 4, 9, 11, 14. We eat every night together at 6:30pm. Fridays are leftovers or take-out before movie night. Saturday we usually go out after games, Sunday is big family dinner with my sister's family, my in laws. I don't believe in overscheduling activities and running everyone all over. The kids get one sportactivity a season that I will drive them to and any extra curricular activities/clubs they can take a bus home for. 11yr old switched travel softball team because the coach wanted 5-7pm practices. It interfered with dinner so we switched. No one will take my family dinners away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy. Don't your kids play sports/dance/music lessons? When I was a kid we had dinner together on Monday night only from age 7 on. I had dance, gymnastics, piano, and archery lessons every other night.

Kids are 9&12, we have dinner together maybe once a week or once every other week.

"Crazy"? Really? That sounds sad Pp.
We prioritize family dinners over any activity. It is the only time of the day we get to connect. You are choosing to model that self improvement is more important than your relationships with each other. Your children may have more accomplishments when they're grown, but will they value the people in their lives?

[Anonymous]

Kids are 11 and 13. The four of us eat dinner together nearly all the time. Sometimes it's later (or earlier) on account of sports and sometimes everyone is eating different leftovers, but we all basically eat dinner at the same time and in the same place.

[Anonymous]

We do breakfasts together, does that count?

In theory, I would like to eat dinner together more often, but it is hard to do with us-- mostly because DH gets home late from work often. We have recently decided to do 1 family dinner a week and see how that goes. He works his schedule around it.

Our kids are 22 month old twins and an 8 year old. I sometimes eat with the kids and sometimes eat with my DH later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do breakfasts together, does that count?

In theory, I would like to eat dinner together more often, but it is hard to do with us-- mostly because DH gets home late from work often. We have recently decided to do 1 family dinner a week and see how that goes. He works his schedule around it.

Our kids are 22 month old twins and an 8 year old. I sometimes eat with the kids and sometimes eat with my DH later.

Absolutely it counts!! Good for you. Breakfast with teens is a nightmare and there are mornings no one talks to anyone, lol. At least their hormones are more evened out by dinner and that works for us.

There is plenty of research to back up the prioritizing meals with family. Preteens and teens who eat fewer than 3 family dinners a week are 3.5x higher risk for prescription and illicit drugs. 3x higher to try cigarettes, and 2.5 times higher to drink and do marijuana. I think it all comes down to knowing your kids. I learn so much about friends, school, can feel if something is "wrong" all during a meal. I much rather have take-out and all sit down together than worry about the meal itself. When kids get older it makes a big deal. If you prioritize it when they are young, they will never know any better later. It is just the norm that dinner is a "must come home event."