Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us. It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry.

This doesn't make any sense. There's a big spectrum between threatening they will go hungry and sitting down together to eat a meal.

Exactly. I've found Ellyn Satter's books to have really good advice on eating meals together as a family, taking tastes into consideration without catering to a toddler's every whim. Mealtime became a lot more enjoyable for our family after I started adopting her philosophies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us. It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry.

This doesn't make any sense. There's a big spectrum between threatening they will go hungry and sitting down together to eat a meal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us. It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry.

NP. So if your kids don’t like vegetables, they never have to eat them?

NP. We don’t force our 14 month old to eat. If she doesn’t eat the vegetables offered that day, so be it. She can eat carbs and fruit and cheese.

Lol good luck with that. Check back in with us when she's 4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us. It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry.

NP. So if your kids don’t like vegetables, they never have to eat them?

NP. We don’t force our 14 month old to eat. If she doesn’t eat the vegetables offered that day, so be it. She can eat carbs and fruit and cheese.

We mostly do family dinner with our 20 month old, all eating the same food. (She’s not picky yet and a good eater, so it usually works out.) Last Friday we just gave her dinner then had dinner as a couple after she went to bed, and it was really nice. We might try to do that once a week from now on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us. It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry.

NP. So if your kids don’t like vegetables, they never have to eat them?

LOL I'm sure that's what it means.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us. It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry.

NP. So if your kids don’t like vegetables, they never have to eat them?

Our infant daughter, who couldn't even sit up yet, was always at the table with us. Bassinet pulled close to the table.

When older, if someone was having their meal, yes everyone was there. Around the table. Whether everyone was actually eating was unimportant.

My Father would work late, sometimes home to eat dinner at 9pm. I was expected to be at the table and have conversation. I suspect they kept me up just so I could see him. Probably wouldn't have seen him much otherwise. Sure I had had my dinner hours before. Again, not important for everyone to be eating a meal, it's the company.

We eat together

We always did with our first, but after the second one came along, things changed. We eat as a family about 2-3 nights pe week. Kids are 3 and 6.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did not at that age. We started eating together when DC was 5.

I always disliked the "eat as a family" emphasis. Neither the timing nor the menu worked for us. It's not like you can never start, later, when it does make sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the menu didn't work?

DP. I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat foods they don’t like or threatening they will go hungry.

I’m the PP who asked the question. I am also the parent with the DH who does shift work who posted above. I don’t believe in those things either.

I put one meal on the table, but I include enough variety that I know my kids will find enough food that they like. It may not be food that excites them, but there are always things they’ll eat in the mix, and they take what they will. They have never left the table hungry, although there are certainly days like today when my youngest filled up on milk, rice, sliced apples and didn’t touch the stir fry I had made.

For me, given how I feel about not forcing, family dinners have worked well. I think that serving a stir fry that no one ate would be depressing to me and would feel like pressure to my kids, even if I planned to eat it later. I also think my kids benefit from smelling it and seeing it on the table even if they don’t taste it.

To be clear, we also have days when chicken nuggets (those dreaded chicken nuggets LOL) are on the table, that just didn’t happen to be tonight.

I am not saying that you should do what I do, just that you can serve meals family style without forcing or pressuring your kids to eat, or threatening them with hunger.

We both tended to work late, but I felt like it was important to have a mealtime tradition with my toddler. Our solution was that the toddler fed the nanny around 5 pm and then she ate with us again at about 8 pm and routinely stayed up until 9:30 or 10. The sleep schedule was non-traditional, but worked very well because the nanny meant we could let her sleep in the morning when we were rushing to get ready for work.

We don't eat together. Pre-covid, the kids came home from school hungry and ate around 5. My spouse fed the kids at the kitchen counter (easier to clean up) and ate at the table while reading on phone. I didn't get home until 6 and ate on my own. We have so much time together at home now that it's nice to have some time for the parents to talk to each other or have some quiet time.

Anonymous wrote:We always had dinner as a family.

We all eat together and we all eat the same food (healthy, whole food). It's just easier that way. My kids go to bed at 8:30 and sleep until 8:30, so we usually do dinner between 6:30-7:30. That leaves time for bath, stories, and bed. That said, my husband and I aren't fanatical about timing! It's just too exhausting to be super rigid.

DD is 2.5 and we always eat together.