Making Time for Meals

Monday, April 07, 2008  by Gregory Gronbacher
Category: Time for meals

This past weekend, I stopped for a moment to wonder if the ritual of the Sunday family dinner is still widespread. When I was young, our family tended to have an early, somewhat larger, dinner on Sundays, often including extended family. Instead of dinner beginning at 5pm or after, it would begin around 2pm.

Of course, this lead me to wonder if the tradition of the family meal during the week still exists. So many people are so busy, even children have complicated and packed schedules. Few families have time to sit down, enjoy a home cooked meal, and talk to one another.

The only time I use my dining room table and enjoy a sit-down meal is when I have company over. And observing my married friends with children, I think the same applies to them.  

So, I'm asking -- do you have set meal times with your family? How often do you enjoy a sit-down meal with others?  

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Comments

# Lora Robinson said on April 7, 2008 9:40 AM:

We still eat together a lot.  However, my husband works from home, I'm a stay at home mom & we homeschool our kids, so we are just naturally together a lot so sitting down to a meal together isn't as big of a deal for us.  During the kids' sports seasons, we tend to eat together less as we are just making sandwiches and heading out the door to games or practices.

# michaelciotta said on April 7, 2008 10:02 AM:

practically never.  my schedule permits me to eat dinner around 8 PM when my family is usually winding down.  

# M.A> Britton said on April 7, 2008 11:16 AM:

We work to sit down and eat as a family at least once a day. Life gets busy, but not too busy to make mealtime a priority, even if it is only once in a day.

It is work too, with our schedules. Thankfully, we educate in our home which gives us the advantage of eating breakfast together without the "catch the bus" rush.  

Here are a few of oru family hints we use to make it easier to sit down once a day and enjoy a meal together.

The crockpot is our best friends during the week, ensuring a wonderful meal at the end of a busy day and avoiding the end of the day cry - "I forgot to take something out of the freezer"!!

Something else I do is cook large amounts of ground meat (about 8-10 lbs) with basic seasonings, plus garlic and onion, then freeze it in separate containers. Which saves me time when making a meal like tacos or spaghetti, just thaw, add the meat to the rest of the dish.

Now that the temps will be rising with the spring and summer months, the grill will fired up more often, making meals quick and delicious! I even cook pizza on the grill...

The weekends offer a chance to eat more meals together. Our favorite family meal: Sunday after church.

It is our "big meal" of the week. We usually have a chicken dinner with all the trimmings. Followed by a board game, our favorite these days is Blokus.

We believe it takes creative planning and a commitment to make sitting down together a priority.

Thanks for posting this topic, I hope others will find a way to sit down and enjoy family time around the table.

M.A. Britton

# Theo Rhodes said on April 7, 2008 8:11 PM:

Man it's not easy but it is essential.   As our kids have grown into teenage years, it is more and more difficult to sit down as a family to eat and share.   I would say we eat dinner as a family 3-5 times a week with a few other meals together on the weekends.   We put a priority on eating together - maybe we are old school.

Theo

# Terri-Ann Peters said on April 11, 2008 10:24 PM:

I actually do. I would say probably once a week with my family, but when i'm not eating with my family all together, it's either my brother and I. And outside of home, it's with my boyfriend Dwight.

# Janiece Swets said on April 13, 2008 7:34 PM:

Great topic and a worthwhile skill!  We have practiced (emphasis on "practice") breakfast and dinner together for all 43 years of our marriage.  We've found eating together to be the best time to really listen to each other and hear beyond words.  We are empty-nesters now, but treasure hearing about our kids--now married and living more than 1000 miles away maintaining this tradition in their homes.  Cooking simply and nutriously builds healthy bodies, but it's only part of the skill.  Developing a gracious mindset to treasure the gathering and the conversation builds healthy relationships.  Let's keep eating together.  I have a rufugee friend who can't remember eating together with her family.  She doesn't have a table or chairs in her kitchen, but she is learning.  We believe that Meals Together is a learned skill.  

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