Have a 4.5 yo. We have always eaten together. What that means is later dinner, we eat at 7 pm. I'm not cooking twice so usually make something that's easily deconstructable. Spicy toppings always on the side, salads with big pieces so kid eats tomatoes and cucumbers and not lettuce, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Study after study has shown the positive outcomes of eating dinner together as a family. Why wouldn't I try to give that to my kids.

Because our work schedules don't allow it.

And our son has allergies and a more restricted menu than us.

The work thing I get but what does his allergies have to do with it?

Even if you have really really picky eaters, why does that necessitate not eating together?

OP here, thank you all! Tonight is the night to start.

I always grew up eating family dinner every single night and planned to at some point, and I think the time has arrived. I guess beforehand I didn't because he was having bottles for dinner, then purees, etc, but now it's gotten to the point where I was cooking twice and hungry myself when I was feeding him earlier. So, the time has come. I'm pumped. Thanks, all!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We always ate together, always the same foods.

+1. I don't know anyone who does this who has out-of-the norm difficult picky eaters. Small issues, sure. But the ones with major issues are the ones who were always willing to offer different kid foods.

They don't, they just want to take the easy way out of parking their kids with some microwaved nuggets and checking out. I don't judge much about other people's parenting choices but I judge this. Unless you have work schedules that don't allow it there's really no reason not to sit down and eat with your kids.

Anonymous wrote:We always ate together, always the same foods.

+1. I don't know anyone who does this who has out-of-the norm difficult picky eaters. Small issues, sure. But the ones with major issues are the ones who were always willing to offer different kid foods.

We always ate together, always the same foods.

First child ate separately until she was about 18 months old. Mostly because she needed an earlier dinner (due to her bedtime) than I was willing to tolerate. She would eat the same foods as us, or other comparable normal foods, but just at a different time. Husband and I always use to eat at about 8 pm on the couch pre-kids. I had to be dragged to an earlier dinner time kicking and screaming basically. At about 18 months she was mostly eating dinner at 6:30 pm (for 8 pm bedtime) and I decided I could do that, so we started eating together every night.

Second baby, as soon as he was on solid foods we always ate dinner together. But I really dislike eating with an infant haha. He is so messy and unruly! My daughter was not like that. It is a really stressful dinner most of the time. Almost everytime I'm like, wow, we should just have him eat separately. But now we don't really have time for two separate dinners.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids just turned 2 and 4. We eat dinner together every single night at 5:30/6. It's painful some nights but gets better every month. They now sit well, eat their vegetables, don't throw food (like 1 year olds) and we now have discussions about what we did during the day. DH and I both ate dinner with our parents every single night growing up. And I know that all our grandparents did as well. I think nuclear family dinner and reading books before bed together are the two most important times of the day.

DH and I are sometimes wistful about eating on the couch watching TV together like we did before kids.

We still do this on most Fridays. We get the kids bathed and ready for bed before dinner, they have pizza in front of a movie and then go to bed. We order takeout and have a late dinner on the couch after they're asleep. The best.

I think it's so important. I remember I went to a boyfriend's house in high school. His mom served chicken nuggets to everyone on paper plates and then they all scurried to their own bedrooms to eat in front of the TV. It was the weirdest thing I'd seen. He said he hadn't ever eaten with his family other than on Easter or Thanksgiving. I actually was a bit jealous because as a kid we all had to talk about our day and what we were learning. As a grownup, I realize what a gift that was that my parents gave us. "Working late" - I work after the kids go to sleep again.

Anonymous wrote:Study after study has shown the positive outcomes of eating dinner together as a family. Why wouldn't I try to give that to my kids.

Because our work schedules don't allow it.

And our son has allergies and a more restricted menu than us.

I usually eat with my 3.5 year old around 6:30, but my husband only joins us maybe 3 times a week, as he's often still working at that time. Sometimes I'm not hungry at 6:30 but I still sit at the table with DS and talk with him.

We eat together. One meal that can be modified for the picky with little-to-no extra effort.

Study after study has shown the positive outcomes of eating dinner together as a family. Why wouldn't I try to give that to my kids.

Always together. I'm not cooking twice