[Spidey]

I'm surprised that most of my son's friends don't eat dinner with the family. So does your entire family have dinner together or is someone usually missing?

 

[dogcom]

We usually end up eating together about 4 times a week on the couch watching TV.

Spidey or whoever who is the first one up in your house and are you fast movers or do you take your time moving around in the morning? I am usually up first at about 7AM when I am not working and usually like to move fast and don't like to move slow in the morning for some reason. I also like to work weekends get weekdays off and hate crowds and waiting for anything.

 

[MoneyGal]

Yeah, it's a huge deal for me (and for my husband). My kids are young enough (4 and 7) that I can essentially force them to do this, though! They don't really have independent social calendars yet.

 

[OhGreatGuru]

My family is now grown up and having babies of their own. But certainly we did in the past, and our daughters' friends all thought it was peculiar that they actually sat down and had dinner with their parents almost every day of the week. But I think it helped us raise 2 very well-balanced children.

See following article that was published in a number of papers about a year ago:
http://www.healthyontario.com/newsitemdetails.aspx?newsitem_id=1216

 

[Ben]

No kids of our own yet, so I suppose it doesn't really count that the two of us eat together.

I'm a big believer in the value of it though. Growing up in large family, we always ate together and I have happy memories of congregating around that 4x8 sheet of plywood. I intend to do the same down the road.

While we can debate whether it's a symptom or a cause of successful families, it is a good sign overall that something is going right in that family.

 

[canadianbanks]

Yes, we usually do.

 

[Rickson9]

It's just my wife and I, so it's easier to eat dinner together

 

[LauraLap]

We always eat together, and never in front of the TV. Ever. We even eat breakfast and lunch together (minus DH).

 

[fredos417]

Yes we usually do, and never in front of the TV.

 

[tom_ford]

If you don't count the meals we eat at work, then we always make it a point to sit together and eat as a family. I believe this is one of the most important things any parent must practise. I also believe that the dining table is where parents get to know their children, where the children get to know their parents, where everyone gets to talk about each other's day, where the entire family gets to have quality conversations. I think that most kids who grow up detached from their parents are those kids who are products of families who don't eat together.

 

[Teen Trader]

We don't eat together very often (it's just my parents and I in the family), as we all have different things going on, however menial they may be. We do talk all the time though, and find no point to 'eating' together. The only time we really do is when we're all watching a movie or something like that.

 

[cmackie]

My wife and I eat together just about every day but it's pretty easy since it's just the two of us.

 

[cboenews]

I dont have a family yet - but my father thought it was really important to eat dinner together as often as we could. This was a great move on his part - it added stability and forced us to spend time with the family.