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

[Anonymous]

My kids are 12 and 15 now. We rarely "eat dinner together"... This has been true for our whole lives for various reasons... Kids schedule, 2nd shift, toddlers making the experience miserable.

For years, the toddlers would eat at the table ... My H and I would have a drink. Then the kids would get bath and bed, or bath and tv time and we would eat adult food quietly.

There were times when my kids would be starving before H got home so they would eat before he got home. Then they would have ice cream and sit with us when we eat.

But I don't really believe the eating together thing being so important as it is finding time to sit and talk.

We have so many opportunities to be together and talk and share our day or talk about what is going on in our life's or in the world (mostly March madness right now).

Snow days help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are 12 and 15 now. We rarely "eat dinner together"... This has been true for our whole lives for various reasons... Kids schedule, 2nd shift, toddlers making the experience miserable.

For years, the toddlers would eat at the table ... My H and I would have a drink. Then the kids would get bath and bed, or bath and tv time and we would eat adult food quietly.

There were times when my kids would be starving before H got home so they would eat before he got home. Then they would have ice cream and sit with us when we eat.

But I don't really believe the eating together thing being so important as it is finding time to sit and talk.

We have so many opportunities to be together and talk and share our day or talk about what is going on in our life's or in the world (mostly March madness right now).

Snow days help.

Same in our family

[Anonymous]

15 and 12 and probably sitting at the table together 4 times/week due to sports, work, etc.

[Anonymous]

Kids 9 and 13. 6-7 nights a week dinner together, but we eat at 7:30 to make it happen. Extremely important for our family.

[Anonymous]

22, 19, 10, 7.

Never happens. The two oldest are out of the house, and my boyfriend works at night. It's a big deal if the six of us all sit down together for a meal.

[Anonymous]

almost 3 and 4 mos. Never. It's really important to me that we start, but may take a few years until schedules align.

[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.

Judgmental much? I did two sports competitively (was on a nationally-ranked team for one), was captain of the debate team, and managed to do well enough academically to be admitted go a top Ivy League college (not for sports). We're my parents "crazy" as you put it for making it a priority for us to eat dinner together? If so, I'll take crazy!

[Anonymous]

6 and 10, nearly every night. They each play sports and the oldest just got done with a travel season. We shift dinner around activities, so yes some evenings we eat later than usual.

[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.

Why the put down? Different families do things differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every night. But, my kids are 7 and 10. Might be different when in HS. It's important to us to have dinner together but we wouldn't make a kid miss his soccer practice just to have dinner together. I guess we are not as involved as some families in various activities. Each kid has 2 activities most of the year.

This is us exactly. Having dinner as a family is something I grew up with, even with divorced parents (i.e., mom and I always ate dinner together, and dad & stepmom & I always ate dinner together). Only exceptions were the infrequent party or sleepover at a friend's house. I liked the routine of it, even as a high schooler, and I want my kids to have the same togetherness. There are occasionally nights when an activity gets in the way, but if we can make it work (even if it means dinner earlier or a bit later than "normal"), we do.

[Anonymous]

We do not have a lot of activities, and those that we do have are right after school. Even so, the four of us eat together twice a week, on weekends. The three of us (me, 14, and 9 yo) eat together every week night. DH works late hours.

[Anonymous]

16 and 13, and I would say 6/7 nights.

It is very important to us.

[Anonymous]

4 and 1. Every night unless the younger one conks out extra early.

[Anonymous]

Kids from HS to early ES age. Have a child who was failure to thrive for years and then had serious issues with eating for more years. Since having this child, meal times stopped being family times for us. I would guess that maybe we eat together on weekends, but not even all the time. What really matters for us is the hour before bedtime. We all get together and read and talk together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are 1 and 3. We have family dinner every night.

How do you keep 1 year old up for dinner? Do you eat really early and both parents are able to do this?

I'm a SAHM with a 1 year old who goes to sleep at 7:30 and is terribly hungry around 6:30-7. DH isn't able to get home most nights until 7:30, just in time to put DS to sleep.

We all eat together maybe 3 nights per week.. and when we do, sometimes DH and I just nibble and eat more later as we're not hungry so early.

This is something important to me so hoping it will iron out as DS gets older and bed time can be pushed back a bit.