Is sitting around the dinner table still a big deal for you & your family?

At my grandmother’s we eat anywhere we’ll fit, but if we all “fit” at the table, we’ll eat there. Or at the table + at the bar. I think I’ve seen 11 people do this which is kind of a feat.

At home, we eat together when I’m there (I don’t know what they do when I’m not home, I suspect they eat together in their chairs in the living area while my mum knits and my father watches television). Together generally means at the table for meals that people put effort into and in the living area for mostly leftover meals. To me, the important thing is that we do it as a family with plenty of time to talk to each other.

Though, to be fair, when my parents were back in school, family dinners were often kind of on hold. We had them when we could, but with night classes and major papers and projects it wasn’t what it used to be. So instead of the kids stepping out as teenagers and rebelling against family dinners, my parents did.

Not at all. Sitting is what we generally do at home when we have dinner. Standing around the dinner table when we eat would be more of a big deal

Some of the best times of my life are when my grown sons are home and we sit around the dinner table, talking and laughing.

We haven’t eaten together since I was 6.
Dad eats in the living room, mom in the office and I stay in my room.
My sister eats whenever one of us feeds her, but she stays in the basement living room.

Even at big family dinners, we all split up in different rooms.
I’ve never thought about it. It’s just how it is. I do wonder what people talk about at the dinner table, though.

It’s still a priority of my family to eat around the table. We usually eat all together, but sometimes my dad will have a night shift, so we either go to my cousins to eat around their table, or watch T.V. and eat junk food.

@rangerr Whatever is going on in life. Same as non-dinner time.

“Some of the best times of my life are when my grown sons are home and we sit around the dinner table, talking and laughing.”

This is what @janbb wrote, and it’s exactly the same for me, except now there are little kids and in-laws too.
I need a larger table. Every now and I then I say “Why don’t we go sit in the living room?” but nobody budges. Maybe they think there’s going to be additional dessert.

No,we don’t. Dinnertime is not a big production at my house.Growing up,it was.

There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting around the table with my family.
It’s nice when there are a couple of the kids there, but when it’s everybody, I spend most of the meal laughing.

we are fluid

Coming from a big family, you were lucky to be able to sit to eat.. so dinner table wasn’t anything special. However I like the idea and would probably try to eat dinner @ the table with the family every day if/when I have a family.

We try to, but most nights we’re not all home at the same time, due to work, rehearsal, hockey, singing, debating, rock climbing, etc. During the holidays it’s not so bad. The only place we’re allowed to eat food is the kitchen, so we do sit around the dinner table and eat every night, but not necessarily at the same time.

I love sitting at the table for family dinners.. sometimes I’m not in the mood, but I like how much my son enjoys it and we talk and I can watch how much he is actually eating (he’s young, so I just want to make sure he gets enough)
It’s not a big deal, and growing up we rarely ate anywhere but in front of the tv. My husbands family forced family dinner…didn’t make them any closer than my family.

5 pm was always dinner time at my house as a child. as i grew up, 5pm was always dinner time for my family. my children moved away and 5 pm is their dinner time for the table. my grandchildren moved away and 5 pm is their dinner time for their family. do you see a pattern here?

If this is not taught in your family from the “get go”, chances are you will never have this family gathering at 5 pm. we love this gathering for two reasons: 1. to make sure no one is missing 2. to learn the events of the day from each other and whats coming up next.

This routine has kept our families together for many years and will continue to do so.

\We try to, when the whole family is together.. and by that I mean lacrosse is done at 4:45 then tennis is finished at 6:30 and swim meets are done at 7 within the time we get everyone home.. it’s about 7:30 so if we have time for diner we will.. but then we’ve got to worry about home work too.. so on the busiest of days we go off to where we need to be and eat there. But when everyone’s home we do. However.. it’s become a sort of.. tradition for sunday night dinners. so.. we all eat together hopefully sometime in the week.

We almost always sit at the table and eat together as a family for dinner. Lunch too, on the weekends. It’s pretty easy to arrange right now because the kids are young and their after-school activities are limited and don’t take a lot of time. If my husband is working late or out of town, the kids and I still eat at the table. We talk about what each of them did at school, and from there the conversation just goes wherever it goes. With two little boys there is the inevitable bathroom humor joke. They get one each, but a second one gets them sent to their rooms. I secretly look forward to finding out how they’ll try to sneak it into the table conversation. Sometimes we will have movie night, order pizza, and eat in the living room while we watch a DVD. Maybe once a month or so. It’s a huge deal to the kids!

My husband started a nice tradition with the kids. He asks each of them, “What was the worst part of your day, and what was the best part?” Besides all of us sitting and talking, the kids are expected to use good table manners. They also clear their own plates and help with the clean-up.

I don’t know what we’ll do when the kids are older and spend more time with sports or other activities after school. Schedules will become crazier, but my husband and I both already plan on making family dinners a priority. Neither of us grew up eating around the table with family except on special occasions. We grew up with TV trays in the living room, and don’t want to continue that.

It also makes us really, really appreciate the rare nights we go out to dinner without the kids. :)

It is when my family is in town.

YES! Huge deal. I love to have all of us sitting down together. I especially love it when the kids are laughing – for some reason it just reminds me of being young again. We always eat together. Sometimes my husband is running a little late….but we still sit there and chat even if me and the kids are finished. I like to cook too – always have – and one of the
greatest joys for a cook, in my opinion, is seeing people enjoy what you made.

It was and still is a big deal. When my kids were still living at home, we all ate together every night at the table. If it was fast food brought home, it was still eaten at the table. These days, two of my kids are still nearby and one is temporarily out of state, but the two that are near, my daughter-in-law and grandson come over every Tuesday night to eat together.

Not anymore, no. We did a couple times this week (spring break) and it was nice to do it after so long of not doing it. But even when I was in high school and such, we only did it every now and then; it wasn’t that regular. You can claim it’s a sign our family isn’t close as much as you want, but that’s not the case at all. In fact, my family is a lot closer than many families I know, including some who eat together at the dinner table every night. There are plenty of other ways for families to talk together and be close.