Having family meals; a declining pastime?

[Brett-EDH]

Interesting story on the reduced times families gather for a meal together.

'Family dinner' a thing of the past? Average person spends just 3 meals a week with loved ones

The top no-nos include chewing with your mouth open (19%), not washing your hands (17%), and burping (17%).

www.studyfinds.org

This has always been important to my wife and me. And now that the kids are adulting (18-26) we’ve found that inviting the kids and their GFs over for a BBQ is a sure way to get them to attend.

And yes, the memories made are what’s important to us and staying connected to our kids and their lives are too.

So how often are you having family meals these days?

Poll closes in 10 days.

 

[Rich Dahl]

I really can't vote on this because it's just Barb and me. The kids are hundreds of miles away and all grown adults with their own family's.
I know my son is a believer in family meals, but with the hectic life they live today it's hard to say how often that happens

 

[John_NJ]

Lucky for me, my wife is a great cook who likes trying new recipes- she follows the recipe closely as possible.

If I am cooking, I open the refrigerator door and grab a handful of ingredients and figure something out.

If we’re really busy we might heat a frozen pizza or have scrambled eggs and toast for dinner.

But we cook and eat at home well over 300 days a year.

And we know that this is rather uncommon based on our circle of family and friends.

 

[Ed P]

There's no "less than 1 time per week" option so I'll have to pass. My adult "kids" spend more time at the gym than at the dinner table these days. Our 18yo grandson comes over for pizza when we have it, but that's every other week...other than that, he's more interested in being online with his friends and videogaming.

 

[Brett-EDH]

There's no "less than 1 time per week" option so I'll have to pass. My adult "kids" spend more time at the gym than at the dinner table these days. Our 18yo grandson comes over for pizza when we have it, but that's every other week...other than that, he's more interested in being online with his friends and videogaming.

I added a less than 1x a week option. TY for bringing that to my attention. Sorry for not thinking wide enough when I built this.

 

[JKalchik]

It's just Deb & I. More frequently than not, we do eat together.

Take a look into Andrew Zimmern's _Family Dinner_ series.

 

[BPratt]

All 5 of us adults or fully grown people eat 1 meal a day together, usually a big lunch around 3pm. Light Dinner is around 930pm. Everyone usually has a custom meal like a restaurant

The big kids still eat chicken fingers and fries…

 

[Lew Newby]

Before Covid our family got together at Grandma's house, ours, for a big 3 generation meal every month. I cranked up the grill and smoker and we had kids, grandkids, and great grandkids eating at 3 different tables in the house. It was a fun tradition. Unfortunately, Covid put an end to that and because of my increased age it looks like we won't be able to go back to that. There comes a time when the younger generations pick up the load.

 

[Joan]

I soo love the Sunday weekly get-together their family has on "Blue Bloods". And like a lot of you here, there is only the two of us, but we eat every meal together.

 

[Brian B Atlanta]

All 5 of us adults or fully grown people eat 1 meal a day together, usually a big lunch around 3pm. Light Dinner is around 930pm. Everyone usually has a custom meal like a restaurant

The big kids still eat chicken fingers and fries…

Light dinner around 9:30pm that is only half an hour before my bedtime. Really great you all eat together for lunch.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

When grandchildren were very young (2 and 6) I started having us get together every Saturday they are now 16 and 20 we only missed Covid lockdown, I Made dinner we waved at each other through the window! And when I was out of town when my Mother passed, a couple of times due to other family obligations from one side or another but, this has been very important to my family. A member that was living in S.C. Has come back and has been included in the since she got back. Its sometimes a lot of work but, it is interesting to see how the little ones have grown into young adults. So different from my misspent youth!

 

[MartinB]

Things were better when moms didn't work. Family's had sit down dinners every night at 6:00 p.m.. and sit down lunches on Sunday. That's how i was raised.

When my dad was growing up, and my mom they're extended families got together and had sit down lunches on Sunday. The dining tables were big enough to seat a lot of people. That was what you did, because you didn't have a bunch of other crap to do instead. Stores weren't open on sunday, there was no internet, there was virtually nothing on TV. You went to church and then you had Sunday dinner at the matriarchs home. People also didn't move away from where they were born and raised as much.

 

[Brett-EDH]

People also didn't move away from where they were born and raised as much.

this is an interesting observation. my parents, and i see my own pattern, moved away from their childhood neighborhoods to where they rasised their chilldren and then moved away from that neighborhood to where they retired. i moved away from where i was riased and now live where i chose to raise my family but i can see my wife and i moving again, to another state possibly, when we retire. mobility has changed how people live and where they live. much has changed over the last 100+ years on the American landscape.

 

[Mark Foreman]

Things were better when moms didn't work. Family's had sit down dinners every night at 6:00 p.m.. and sit down lunches on Sunday. That's how i was raised.

When my dad was growing up, and my mom they're extended families got together and had sit down lunches on Sunday. The dining tables were big enough to seat a lot of people. That was what you did, because you didn't have a bunch of other crap to do instead. Stores weren't open on sunday, there was no internet, there was virtually nothing on TV. You went to church and then you had Sunday dinner at the matriarchs home. People also didn't move away from where they were born and raised as much.

When my 4 kids will still in the house, we did evening dinner most nights with Sunday being mandatory. Now that they are grown, we still try to have family dinners every month or so. I do miss all of us around the table.
That being said, now when we have family dinner, the kids help with the cooking which for me is serious fun for me.

 

[MartinB]

When my 4 kids will still in the house, we did evening dinner most nights with Sunday being mandatory. Now that they are grown, we still try to have family dinners every month or so. I do miss all of us around the table.
That being said, now when we have family dinner, the kids help with the cooking which for me is serious fun for me.

We generally had a sit-down dinner together at night when my kids were growing up, but athletic practices tended to make it late and sporadic. Wouldn't get home from football or softball practice until 8:00 p.m. or later. Everybody's lives are just much busier including kids. When I was growing up the latest any practice was over was about 6:00 p.m., and all sporting events took place at night during the week, never on the weekends. We played baseball and football games under the lights when I was a growing up. Liked it that way too.... We didn't have to choose between playing athletics or fishing and hunting. The weekends were for fishing and hunting.

 

[MartinB]

As far as moving away, it's sad when you don't live near your kids or grandkids to me..... But I realize for some people that's a good thing too.... Not all families are the same. We stayed at least within driving distance of my parents so we could have the kids there often and they would get to know their grandparents and cousins, etc.

My mother's brothers family is pretty close... Kids, grandkids, great grandkids.... They stay close to my uncle because he's quite well off. Not that they wouldn't otherwise, but the access to things to do that his money provides just makes it easier. For instance he took his entire extended family on Safari to Africa once.... Probably spent $250,000 to do it. About 25 people. Every summer they get together in Jackson hole. There's also condos for people to use when they want at the beach and in the mountains. Before relocating to a retirement type community in the past couple of years he had a big house in an outdoor oriented community on an island off South Carolina coast where everybody would go to gather because there was lots of stuff to do. From fishing, riding horses, shooting skeet, hunting doves. All of it was at your fingertips. You just called up and told them what time you wanted to do it. Did you want a guide or not, did you want to use their boats or not, etc.

 

[Mark Foreman]

As far as moving away, it's sad when you don't live near your kids or grandkids to me..... But I realize for some people that's a good thing too.... Not all families are the same. We stayed at least within driving distance of my parents so we could have the kids there often and they would get to know their grandparents and cousins, etc.

If you draw a 10 mile circle around my house, all 4 of my kids and 4 grandkids live. I would not trade that for anything... especially during the holidays. As a personal preference, I would not have it any other way.

 

[MartinB]

If you draw a 10 mile circle around my house, all 4 of my kids and 4 grandkids live. I would not trade that for anything... especially during the holidays. As a personal preference, I would not have it any other way.

I agree.
My son is now living in Manhattan
My wife's greatest fear is he marrys his girlfriend from Connecticut and they raise their family up there and she never sees grandkids

He wants to move back south that's always been in his plan, after kickstarts his retirement savings.
She has visited down here and wasn't happy with the humidity and heat in the summer, and wants to stay close to her family in Connecticut too....

 

[John_NJ]

Things were better when moms didn't work. Family's had sit down dinners every night at 6:00 p.m.. and sit down lunches on Sunday. That's how i was raised

Women entering the workforce was good for raising productivity and standard of living for the population of the United States.

At the same time, it obliterated the family unit.

Chasing the dollar, losing our souls.

Bon appetite…

(The views expressed are mine, and people who might agree will have a hard time admitting it in public due to not wanting to offend, imo)

 

[MartinB]

Women entering the workforce was good for raising productivity and standard of living for the population of the United States.

At the same time, it obliterated the family unit.

Chasing the dollar, losing our souls.

Bon appetite…

(The views expressed are mine, and people who might agree will have a hard time admitting it in public due to not wanting to offend, imo)

It certainly hasn't raised the standard of living by my definition... Oh it's allowed us to do is buy a bunch of cheaply made Chinese junk that breaks quick.