Family dinner

I would like to try having "family dinner" with our two. They go to bed at 7:00. Does this mean we would have to eat dinner at 5:30?? Yikes!

If you do eat dinner together - at what time do you eat and when do your kids go to bed?

I am thinking we might only do this a couple of times a week. I am hoping it will help my 2 eat some new foods - something other than chicken nuggets. sigh.

 

We do eat dinner as a family everynight! We eat at 5:30, because Emilie and Trevor are hungry by then, and they go to bed at 7:30 and my oldest goes to bed at 8:30. It works well to eat at 5:30 because we have time to play or go for a walk before bed.

 

My boys go to bed a 7pm also we eat by 5pm, then bath, snack about 6 and bed at 7pm. I slacked this summer but with my step-daughter starting back to school tomorrow I will have to start cooking full dinners again. It does help to get them to eat new things that's why I hate lunchtime how many times can I they eat nuggets, grillcheese, hotdogs.

 

We eat at 5:30 as well since the twinks hit the hay at 6:30. It doesn't bother us in the least. ardon: It does give me some time with the older kids that is nice.

 

i wish we could, but DH doesn't get home usually till 6:30 and the kids go down at 7:30, so that wouldn't leave him much real quality time playing and romping with them. I'm hoping maybe in the future we can work out a family dinner, but I'm not counting on it for a while.

 

We've always had family dinners. My husband gets home at 6-6:30pm and the kids are in bed by 7:30-8:30pm (later now that they are a bit older). There have certainly been times when we've fed them and they've gone right to bed afterwards (so tired!), but it's important for us to eat together.

 

We have family dinner every night. We eat at 6:15pm, and the girls go to bed around 7:30pm. DH normally does their bath while I clean up from dinner.

 

Similar to the pp, we always eat dinner as a family. On the 3 days that I work, I usually don't get home until 6:15, but DH usually has dinner on the table when I get home. They're bedtime is 7:00-7:30, so some nights we finish dinner and go right up to baths. We consider dinner our family quality time. And I have to say, it has helped with encouraging them to eat new foods. They always want what we want.

 

I have that problem on the weekends DH does not get home until 6 but they are hungry by 5 so me, my sd and the boys eat. I make a plate for DH and by the time he is done his shower it is already almost 6:30, he eats plays with the boys for a half hour and we put them to bed.

 

We eat every night as a family and lunch on weekends as well. Dinner is at 5:30 and the twins are in bed at 8:00. They get milk right before bed.

 

We eat together every night at 5:00. The babies are hungry by then anyway and DDs are hungry after a long day of school. They have a very small snack when they get home. The babies go to bed at 6:30.

 

we try to have "whole family" dinners as much as possible but DH doesn't usually get home until about 730 and the twinks are ready for bed by 800. if he can get home early he will call me and i will try to hold off dinner until about 600 so we can all eat together. on the weekends we can usually work it out, but we (the kids and i ) eat together everynite.

 

We started trying to do this a few times a week when they were about 14 months. It is not a relaxing experience, but I think it's worth it. Mine go to bed at 7pm too, and DH and I don't get home (after picking them up from daycare) until 5:45, so time is tight. But if I cook the night before (or if DH picks up pizza on his way home), we can have something on the table by 6.

They are still pretty picky in what they eat, but I think it benefits all of us to have a policy that "this is what's for dinner." I do still stress about choosing things that they will eat, but I also plan on serving them some of what DH and I are having, with bread or frozen peas or something I know they like on the side.

There isn't much playtime at night, but that would be true in any case -- whether we eat with them or not, we still have to feed them. Dinner is immediately followed by baths (if it's bath night), diaper changes, PJs, stories, teeth brushing, bed.

 

We also have to do ours earlier because the boys have been going to bed at 6:30-7 and DH doesn't get home til 6. We eat at 5-5:30 these days.

 

i work outside the home and dh has his own business and is ALWAYS working (nights, weekends, etc.) so, as much as i would like to do this, we usually don't. on the weekends, i eat every meal with the kids, and dh joins us for one or two meals a weekend. on the weekends we eat between 6 and 6:30 and then go get ready for bed (7:15/7:30). during the week, i would rather spend my limited time with them playing rather than watching them eat, so our care giver feeds them at 5:30, then i am home by 6 and play with them until it's time to get ready for bed. for me that is more important.

 

This has become a new issue in our family too. We always had the girls eat at 5pm, DH got home around 6:30p, he'd put them to bed at 7p and then he and I would eat.

BUT...I recently read an article about the positive effects of eating dinner with your kids and it said that children who ate dinner with at least ONE parent:
had higher vocabulary skills,
girls were less likely to have eating disorders,
and teenagers were less likely to do drugs and alcohol.
I thought that was so interesting and have resolved to at least me eating a little bit with the girls each night!

 

I'm sure a lot of folks on here will think that I am a bit off, but the twins don't go to bed until about 9:00. They always have. I don't really push the issue of bumping their bedtime up because by the time we all get home from work and daycare it is about 6:00. That being said, we sit down and eat as a family every night. It might be at our dinner table or at a restaurant, but we eat together every evening, usually around 7:00, depending on how long it takes me to cook. I love that we can sit down together, before the twins, DH and I used to sit on the couch in front of the TV. Now it gets turned off, and I don't miss it one bit!

 

We eat dinner together. I love it, and it is probably one of my favorite times of the day. It is more fun now that they can talk with daddy about our day. And it is challenging to get dinner on the table by 5:45 at the latest (DH gets home around 5:30). But we do it!

I try to do some prep during lunch time. Then I pop a DVD in when it is time to cook dinner. Hannah can now set the table pretty well and often helps with that (sure it isn't a formal place setting, but we all end up with a placemat, silverware and a napkin).

We take baths right after dinner. DH does baths while I clean up dishes and toys. They take a long bath so that I can get this done. Then we do jammies, teeth, books, and bedtime. Lights out around 7:30. I love it because when they go down for the night, the kitchen and family room is clean and DH and I can relax together.

 

we all eat dinner together. DH is usually at work since he works nights...but the days he is home he eats with us. So usually its just me and the boys. We eat around 5:30pm. Baths around 6:30 and then bed at 7:30. It works well for us. MY oldest (almost 3) sometimes will have a snack later since he is uaully up until 9pm or so.

 

We do it on the weekends, and occationally during the week. DH doesn't get home most nights until after 7, and they boys wouldn't make it that long, and need to be headed to bed by 8 anyway.

 

Thank you all! I am inspired to get my act together today! Dinner will be at 5:30/5:45. The tricky thing with us too is that my son has a dairy (anaphylactic) and egg (mild) allergy. So I have to learn to cook meals with out any dairy or eggs. Should be healthier for us I guess!

Thanks again for the feedback and as always the support

-Dana

 

We always eat together unless dh has to work late. The big kids have to be in bed by 7:30 so we eat at 5:30ish. The twins don't go down till 8 because they don't have to wake up to catch the bus It can be crazy trying to get dinner done so early but it makes the rest of the night go smoother.

 

We hardly do them at all. We are not together except for maybe one night a week. I work AM's and DH works afternoons. We are not physically together that often for dinner. For a special treat if both Dh and I are up for it, and the weather is nice we pick him up for dinner, take a picnic to the park and do dinner together that way.

 

I wish we could eat together every night, but it just isn't feasible. My husband works in Boston 3 days a week and doesn't get home until after the kids are in bed and two nights a week my oldest son has swim team practice right at dinner times (grrr!).

But, we usually manage a 'family dinner' two nights a week (usually the nights my husband works from home) and at least one night of the weekend we'll go out to dinner together. We eat early on those night around 5:30, since my twins also go to bed by 7 pm.

In theory, I understand the importance of a family dinner each night, but it just isn't in the cards for us right now. We figure at least a few nights a week for the time being!
Good luck

 

I'm so excited to say that eat as a family every single night!!!

Before the babies, we also camped out in front of the TV or ate out. I have joked that I'm glad we finally get to use our kitchen table to eat on!

Seriously, this has been a big deal for me.

Now, if I could just get DH to turn the TV off while we eat dinner. Grrrrr.

 

DH typically gets home around 6 and I get home around 5:30. The girls eat at 6:00. So, if I have time to put something together for all of us, we will all eat. If not, we will sit with the girls while they eat. If we want to go out to eat in a restaurant, we try to get there by 5:30 so we can enjoy dinner and still be home for a 7:00 bath. So, even if we aren't all eating together, we are trying to spend that time together.

 

We eat dinner together every night... but it's not always fun! LOL!

I don't get home from work until almost 6 so most nights we don't eat until 6:30. Then the twins go to bed at 7:30. They only have about 15 mins of patience at the table anyhow so their meals are quick. Lauren takes longer but she doesn't go to bed until later. I swear, some night it takes her almost an hour to eat!