When you were growing up, did your family eat dinner together? Mine did. We all got together around the kitchen table and ate. No TV. What's your opinion of this? If you have a family, do you do this now? If you don't have a family of your own, once you start one will you practice this ritual?

Nah. We weren't the Huxtables. We only did that eating together bit on Thankgiving, and even then we weren't hardcore with it. We tended to go our own separate ways during dinner time....half the time we didn't even eat at the same time. My mother would make dinner, leave it on the stove or in the oven, and when we were ready to eat, we'd serve ourselves.

For the most part yes. We'd usually eat in the dining room or all take our dinners into the living room and watch TV while we ate. We didn't usually turn the TV off though, even when we were in another room. And every morning we'd have breakfast together, especially Sunday...and my mom and I still eat together at the table about once or twice a week.

And when and if I ever have kids, I intend to do it the same way...except the TV will be off if we're at the table.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There was no real rule or ritual. It basically depended on how my mom felt that day. If she called us to alert that dinner was ready and we served ourselves, then we tended to fix our own plates and go our separate ways. Sometimes though, she would set up the dinner table, with places for everyone. During those moments we'd all park it.

Today when my sisters and I visit my parents, and have dinner at their house, we'll eat at the table. It's sort of formal, since it's not everyday that we eat under the same roof anymore. When my daughter is over my house, she and I don't necessarily eat at the same table together, but we are usually in the same vicinity. The kitchen is connected to the living room, so we'll watch TV while we eat.

How old is your daughter, Chris?

Supernova wrote:

How old is your daughter, Chris?

She'll be 13 in November.

I think most of the time, we did eat at the same time at home, when I was home. I was home at a set time before I got older and got busy with activities. I recall in elem. and jr. high, we ate right around the time I got home.

Here, we are just awful about eating. I hope my son's future wife sets a better tone for their family. The man of the house works such random hours all the time, it is next to impossible to set anyting by him. I serve healthy meals, but we do not eat all at the same time.

It was rare that we ate together when I was growing up, but my family isn't particularly "close" so. When I was married, my wife and I tried to do the family table thing early on but it didn't last/

We did but it wasn't that great an experience.

My family mixes it up. We sometimes eat together and sometimes don't. Basically it's like what Chris said (depending on what mama wants that day). Sometimes she wants "togetherness" and other times she just cooks to get us out her hair.

We ate at the table but the TV was always on.

Very rarely. For the most part my family only ate at the same table when we'd go out to a restaurant.

when we could, though it was at the kitchen counter, not the dining room table. Some of our meals were eaten on the road, as my dad was a coach and we travelled with the team on weekends. He was also a vice principal for many of my childhood years, and sometime he had meetings that went into the super hour or would keep him at the school until late at night. Most times, though, we ate with my Mom. I think as we got into our later teen years, though. my brother and I were racing off to different activities, so it got tougher to eat together, but we still managed several meals together a week.

We didn't have a TV in the dining room. It was usually a time for us to catch up on our days and whatnot - vent about things, share stories.

We usually did.

We all ate at the dinner table together and god forbid if you were late! No tv, mostly silence until you were finished.

^^^^Silence? You couldn't talk to each other about your day?

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

^^^^Silence? You couldn't talk to each other about your day?

Nope, with so many kids in the family if we talked about anything we usually ended up in a brawl and then we would feel my father's wrath and we were terrified of him.

^^^^Almost defeats the purpose of eating together if there's no communication between the family.

Indeeeed.

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

^^^^Almost defeats the purpose of eating together if there's no communication between the family.

Yeah wasn't the most pleasant atmosphere. If my Father was not present then we would talk at the table, my Mom was not so strict.

My dad demanded it at his house. My mom was 50/50 with it. Sometimes she would make us eat at the table and other times we were free to eat where we wanted.

Tony Marino wrote:

Yeah wasn't the most pleasant atmosphere. If my Father was not present then we would talk at the table, my Mom was not so strict.

AH, I see.