# The "Family Dinner" question.



## CassandGunnar (Jan 3, 2011)

Where do you and your family eat the evening meal? It just seems like, more and more, families aren't together for a meal very often, and if they are, everyone is sitting in front of the TV.
As a child, we ate "supper" at the table and the TV was not even turned on. We had conversations with each other and talked about our day. I cannot even begin to relate how much I learned from my parents, and other adults, while seated around the dinner table and just listening.
On a special occasion, we might be allowed to eat in the living room and watch TV. (The main times I remember were at Easter, during the 10 Commandments and maybe for The Super Bowl)
Of course, I grew up in the era of rotary phones, NO remote control for the TV and the morning and evening newspaper.

Just thinking that some of the kids that have been banned from eateries might benefit from eating a meal, at a table, with the rest of their family and actually being subjected to a conversation and face to face encounters, as opposed to a series of text messages.


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

Well, I haven't lived at home in over 7 years but as a kid, we ate dinner most nights at the table with the TV off and it was usually a home cooked meal. 

We were all very active in sports so sometimes it didn't work but even today when we get together for birthday or holiday dinners, we sit at the kitchen table which doesn't really fit us all anymore... I have 3 sisters, 2 brothers, a niece and a nephew.

Oh, and homework was done before dinner and the kids had kitchen duty after.

At home with the furkids, I eat dinner sitting on my couch


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## ozzymama (Jan 17, 2005)

Where we can, meals are eaten at the table. Dh can work like today a 20 hour day, in which case it's me and the baby, I aim for a 6pm supper and eat with her, well while feeding her, sorta, my salad while she has her "food" and my other stuff while she's having dessert - rice rusks. I still try and even between husbands and single, to have a proper Sunday dinner, bit earlier in the day and something signifigant and special and a dessert. I have my breakfast at the table with the baby and don't eat lunch.


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## Klamari (Aug 6, 2010)

When I was younger (until maybe 10 years old), we did eat at the table as a family much more often. Then once all the kids (there are 4 of us) started getting really involved in sports, that hardly ever happened. And now, even though I'll still be living at home for a while, I'm lucky if I even SEE all the other 5 people that live in this house on a daily basis. So family dinner with everyone there doesn't hardly ever happen. 

Plus the TV is on WAY too much in our house, so that doesn't help.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Unfortunately, we've never eaten as a family. I worked 2nd shift for years and now I'm the last one home at about 6pm. Everyone else has already eaten and gone their way.  I really feel we've missed out on something special.


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

We've never had a lot of "rules" but eating meals every night as a family was always one of them. Now that both kids are out on their own DH and I still eat dinner together at the table most of the time.


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## Josh's mom (Oct 30, 2010)

We try to eat at the table as much as possible, with the girls getting older (18 and 14 now) and when school is in session, it's not that easy. We sometimes have the TV on but we usually talk over it. I work on the week-ends, 12 hr shifts, so dh is in charge of meals, I usually pick something up on the way home.

I remember rotary phones too, my grandma had one, we had the corded "princess"
phone. No VCR, no cable till I was in high school. We didn't have remotes either, I was the remote.


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## Klamari (Aug 6, 2010)

Kinda off topic here, but I heard a commercial the other day on the radio. It was something like,

"If you want those special family gatherings that turn into 2 hour screaming matches, then Direct TV is not for you. If you like having dinner with your family, that end in you calling your brother names that would make a biker dude blush, then Direct TV is not for you. etc
But if you like harmonious, peaceful family moments, then Direct TV is right for you"

.............And I was like, that's my family, maybe that's why we like the TV in my house


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

CassandGunnar said:


> On a special occasion, we might be allowed to eat in the living room and watch TV. (The main times I remember were at Easter, during the 10 Commandments and maybe for The Super Bowl)
> Of course, I grew up in the era of rotary phones, NO remote control for the TV and the morning and evening newspaper.


As a kid, on Sundays we had homemade pizza while we watched the Ed Sullivan Show. If we were bad, we had to eat in the kitchen and miss part of the show. If we were really bad my mother wouldn't make the pizza. LOL...sounds so stupid now but it was a big deal back then!!


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## CassandGunnar (Jan 3, 2011)

Whiteshepherds said:


> As a kid, on Sundays we had homemade pizza while we watched the Ed Sullivan Show. If we were bad, we had to eat in the kitchen and miss part of the show. If we were really bad my mother wouldn't make the pizza. LOL...sounds so stupid now but it was a big deal back then!!


We always ate early on Sunday so we could watch Ed Sullivan.


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## blehmannwa (Jan 11, 2011)

My home is non traditional but we have always eaten dinner together as a family-- usually without the TV. When my son was young he was very surprised to visit friends who ate in shifts. 
We just had a lovely roast chicken and I distributed the schmaltz amongst the dogs. Contentment reigns.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

When I have family visiting they we all try to eat at the table together. Growing up we always ate as a family. Most of the time I just eat where ever I feel like it and that is usually in front of the computer.


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## CarrieJ (Feb 22, 2011)

Currently it's where we land. I don't really have a designated dining area. 
However if Gar and I had children...we would eat at a dining table as it was how we both grew up. No tv, radio, or electronic gadgets (yeah, yeah...that makes me sound like an old fogey).

There are two to three nights a week that I get home at 10 ish PM and Gar is at work. So I don't have that family thing going on. 

But, it's a shame really that more people don't have that time to re-hash the day, have conversations. I have always felt that it's a crucial bonding time for most familes.


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## CookieTN (Sep 14, 2008)

Eh, a bit of both for us.
When I was like seven, eight years old I remember always eating at the table together for meals. (And young as I am, I don't think modern cell phones were around back then. If they were, I had not even an inkling about them. We were still using corded phones.)
Nowadays, somehow the only time we really eat together is on Sunday afternoons. Meh.=/


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## Gilly1331 (Apr 16, 2011)

When I was younger and growing up at home we always ate dinner at the dinner table no tv. Sundays we would eat in the dinning room with a few extra extended family members every weekend. As I grew up it became just Sundays or if I was home at the table to eventually me in my bedroom and parents in the living room at the tv. 

Now that I have my own house and live with only my fiance and 2 dogs/cat we eat in the living room at the tv and occassionally in the kitchen or dinning room depending on the meal, or if we have guests. Down the line when we have our own children I am sure we will go back to the kitchen table until they are old enough to make their own decisions.


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## CLARKE-DUNCAN (Apr 8, 2011)

Usually we eat in the back lounge dining room, but alot of the time as it is just me and the oh, we eat in the front room at the coffee table. Lol..

I think if we ever have a family though we will have evening meals at the dinner table together, I think it is important a family should have sit down time together and catch up on the day. Even if it is for only half an hour.


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## bianca (Mar 28, 2010)

We used to have rotary phones! And the TV was B/W!!!

We always would eat at the table as a family. Now my DH and I don't even have a table inside so I sit on the couch watching the news and he is usually in bed.


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## Sue Smart (Jul 12, 2002)

Just me and the girls and any other doggie guests.


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## CassandGunnar (Jan 3, 2011)

I guess it's obvious that schedules and activities now have had an effect on the family dinner dynamic. Again, when I was younger (WOW, I hate saying that) 99% of our activites took place during the day or after school, leaving our evenings free. When our daughter was in softball, volleyball, etc; it seems that most of the stuff happened in the evening.

I suppose something simple like the layout of more modern houses has something to do with it. Everything built now is more open and does not have a traditional dining room. (Or so it seems to me)
We rarely eat in our dining room any more, now we eat at a counter and, sadly, we normally have the TV on. I think the only reason that we don't sit in the living room is because the dogs will lay in front of us and give us such pitiful looks that we feel guilty.

I won't even hijack my own thread and get started on the whole cell phones and other electronic devices at the table rant. My daughter (22) lost her cell phone on more than one occasion because she used it at the dinner table.


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## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

We usually eat at the kitchen table as a family at least 3 nights a week. 2 nights a week we eat out with the Schutzhund club(our whole family, my husband is the club training director, I am club president, son is a helper and daughter is a member). The nights we eat together at the house we do turn on the TV, but the 4 of us are all watching the series "Heroes' on Netflix, so it is kind of a thing for us to do together. 
My daughter had a friend spend the night last week and the friend was totally amazed that we cooked a meal and ate together at the table. She kept thanking us for dinner over and over, it was pretty funny. Her family eats out almost every night!

Annette


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

When I was a kid, we sat down and ate dinner together as a family.

I HATED it.

We don't have kids, so we hardly ever sit down and eat meals unless we go out, or go to my Dad's house for dinner. Usually, DH and I will browse for whatever food is at hand and we eat it in front of the TV. It's like heaven. I know that must sound strange to some, but it's very liberating to eat what you want, whenever you're hungry, and not be tied down to a schedule. 

I do cook occasionally, and there are times DH and I will sit at the table and eat, but mostly our dinner table is covered with stuff, so it has to be a major event.


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

When I was a kid/teen my family did eat at the table 99% of the time...
Now I hardly ever eat at the table, but there are no kids in the house. Sometimes we're all eating different food at different times anyway. When everyone else is eating dinner I might be at work or in class.


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

As a kid and still when I visit my parents, we eat as a family at the table.

My sister lives with me away from our parents and we usually eat wherever whenever but do still try to eat together when we can.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Currently, I eat with my parents at the table about three times a week, at my sister's at the table, once a week, and the rest of the time, at my parents where we land, or in my car, never at home these days.

When I was a kid, we stuffed two adults, and six children from 0-16 around a small table in the kitchen. Christmas and Thanksgiving we at at the dining room table. When I was ten we moved to a small town, and soon my oldest brother started moving out and in, and when he was in, he used to work at nursing homes, usually second shift. Second shift around here starts anywhere between 2-4 and people get off between 10:30 and 12:30. And then he would have to hitch hike home. So he was never around, even if he did live there. 

When I was fourteen my second oldest brother who did the cooking from age eleven (when I was seven, I always helped him), well he started playing football, and I took over all the cooking for the family. Brian and Lynn were in College, at 16 and 18, and Mom and Dad were going evenings, so I would cook dinner for 5:00 sharp so they could eat as soon as they got in the door, and be out the door and at school half an hour away by six. They would be there until ten, and I babysat my younger brother and sister until they got home. Lynn and Brian would be there if they were not already at school. And after his first year and a half, Brian joined the Air Force. 

The next few years were really jumbled because of who and where we were all going to school. 

I do not think my younger sister or brother benefited as much from family meals. Everything was so fragmented then. Mom often worked until ten or later, working in the public sector. 

My older sister and her two little girls live in the same house with her two business partners. In some ways this is great, she was able to pay her part of the house off, and student loans, and car before she went through the process and cost of adopting the girls. But in other ways it is hard. My sister has the kids off to school early every day and picks them up from school at closing time around six - six thirty. If she brings them home and tries to have some quality time with them, the president of the company asks her this, and that, and this and that about business. So my sister packs a light supper for the kids each night -- PB&J and celery/carrot sticks and an apple, and they eat in the park, or before going to swimming lessons, or at the zoo -- they have a membership, or at the museum, they have a membership. She has the kids from six thirty to eight thirty bed time, and wants to make the best of the time. One day a week they go out to dinner with the business partners -- the aunties they call them. I think Lynn would rather have the kids call them Aunt Irene and Aunt Rhadika, than just use their first names. I am Aunt Susie. On Sundays we all sit down to a dinner together and the girls love it. 

I sometimes have them help me make desert. We made Jello cake last week on the fourth of July, and Strawberry shortcake on the Saturday the second -- I was there all three days. 

So I guess we fall in both categories, wherever we land, and together as a family.


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## King James (May 28, 2011)

Being single, I eat wherever. When I have family over or when I visit them, we eat at one or both tables depending on how many people there are. We may also eat outside if it nice.


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