The Family Dinner

Posted by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick Jun 15, 2007

Years ago, my husband and I decided to make an effort to sit down at the kitchen table for dinner with the entire family every night.

When the kids were little, it was easy. Dinnertime was whenever we'd put them in their high chairs and booster seats and set a plate in front of them.

Then they got older. Someone had track practice until 6, someone else had an indoor soccer game at 6:30, and somebody's piano lesson was at 7:30.

If we were going to have dinner as a family, it was going to have to be late. Really late.

So that's what we opted to do. Some nights we have dinner at 8:30 or 9 pm. We often clean up the kitchen and go straight to bed. Sitting down at the dinner table has become the last thing we do after everyone has gone in his own direction, does his own thing, and is back for the nightly wrap-up.

I know it's old fashioned, and it's not the healthiest way to have a meal, but I'm not ready to give up our family dinners. Grabbing fast food on the way to practice, or fixing the kids a bowl of soup at 4:30 and calling it dinner, isn't healthy either.

Our dinnertime conversation and the ability to sit face-to-face and fork-to-fork with every member of our family is priceless.