Where Do You and Your Kids Eat?

Breakfast - kids eat at day care - I am at work by 7:30 am, as is Dad.

Lunch - School

Dinner - At the dinner table, every night. We will have exceptions if Daddy is gone. Other than that, we sit at the table together as a family. I feel it is an important tradition to start and carry on. The conversations at dinner are always the best. We are all present, sharing food and laughter, no TV and nothing else to focus on but each other. Best way to bond after a long day, at least in my humble opinion.

Good luck to you!

At the kitchen table, dining room table, or rarely the counter. Never in front of the TV. Most meals I eat with the kids, but sometimes I'll clean up the kitchen or cook while they eat at the counter and "help" me.

We all eat at different times... Unfortunately because of that, my son eats wherever he wants to... My husband doesn't get home until 8ish and that's too late for my son (4) and I to eat....
If my son has a friend over, they eat together at his little table.. If we have family over, we all eat at the big table, but if it's just my son and I, I normally eat as I'm cooking and my son eats on the floor (while playing with his toys), on the couch wherever... To me, as long as he's eating, lol

Its just me and my kid for bfast and lunch, so he's on a stool at the kitchen counter eating while I'm fixing my meal or cleaning up. Dinner is around the table together as a family. TV and computer is a non-issue cuz we rarely have them on when the kid is awake, unless we are watching a movie with him.

My kid never eats in front of any screen. There is no way I am letting him develop bad eating habits so young. He knows I will turn it off if he asks for food. I don't want him to associate sitting sedentary in front of the TV and hunger. His friends know that too if they come over and I let them watch TV. I've seen too many preschoolers already turning into couch potatoes at 3 and 4 yo. And they are fat and very overweight (one 5 yo friend is already in a size 10. Her 2 yo sister wears a size 5/6). Bleh.

My kid knows mealtimes are family time, laughing at each other, joking around, talking with each other, being together, telling stories, helping fix and clean up the food. Mealtimes are very interactive in our house!

Hello, we all eat together at our kitchen table for every meal. TV room has carpeting so we'd never eat a meal there, but more than that, I've read that it's not healthy to eat in front of the tele because you zone out into the program and disregard bodily cues that tell you that you are no longer hungry or are full. Plus, I like to interact w/ my family during meal times and having a program on in front of you makes that pretty hard. Believe me, I'm not judging, this is just how we do it at our house. This is also how I grew up when I was a child so it's really an established habit by now :)

We eat every meal (at home) at the table together. IT is super important to me that we do this. It is also easier because the "mess" is contained to one place. Once in a great while we get pizza on the weekend and a movie and we will sit together in the living room with trays and watch the movie.

It is in the best interest of a closenit and HEALTHY family that you eat at the table together. There is a lot of research out there between eating in front of the TV and being overweight. Its important for us (family history of obesity) to maintain a healthy (but fun) lifestyle. Eating together at the table is one of the perks! We talk about our best part/worst part of the day and other topics.

I urge you to get back to the table together. :)

we have 3 indoor dogs and 3 small children, so it's really impractical for us to eat anywhere but the table! we keep all meals/drinks/snacks in the kitchen. i am not a breakfast eater, so typically it's just my husband and the kids eating breakfast - sometimes they're all at the table at the same time, sometimes they get up at dif times and it's one at a time. for lunch, again, they are at the table(unless we're out to eat), i typically straighten up the ktichen while they are eating and eat my own lunch during naptime/quiet time when i can relax a bit... for dinner, we all 5 sit down together at the same time, unless we're eating out, but we're still all sitting together. i really like it that way :)

My kids are allowed 2 hours of PBS in the morning. NOTHING ELSE. We eat all meals at the table. Friday is "Movie and Dinner Night" and we get a pizza or other finger foods and eat in the living room while we watch a movie.

We usually eat every meal at our center island...it has four stools and is curved so it is kind of like a table. I do need to make more effort to sit around the kitchen table though...it does make the meal more of an occasion rather than everyone just eating.

There are 5 of us, me, hubby, 15 yo, 11 and 8. For breakfast we have a large breakfast counter that seats 5 so we usually eat there. Same thing for lunch since hubby isn't home. And for dinner we ALWAYS eat at our dinning room table, even if hubby is running late from an appointment. We never have the tv on during breakfast or dinner but on occasion we will have it on durning lunch. During breakfast we sort of talk about plans for the day and during dinner we go around the table and ask the Rose and Thorn (good and bad) of each persons day. Helps with communication and what's going on with the kids. :o)

Growing up we ate in the livingroom in front of the tv. Our table was used for laundry! Fast forward to me being the mommy, I guess im not your typical mom. Tv is not poison in our home and we watch it alot. So unless the table has access to the tv, we don't sit there! I just wasn't raised to eat that way. We still talk, find out about everyones day just not usually in the kitchen!

Breakfast we eat at the counter. The kiddos can eat while I get the my breakfast made, lunches made ect. Lunch when we are home are at the table, same with dinner. We rarely eat in front of TV. 1 the kids usually don't eat their food, so it comes off. Sounds like your family is just very busy. Maybe once the house is finished life for your family can be put back to normal.

Breakfast: Hubby is at work, I work from home so I have my coffee and oatmeal at the coffee table where my laptop is, kids eat at the table.

Lunch: we all eat at the table. Sometimes we will eat out on a blanket if it is nice outside. I have felt guilty in the past that lunchtime is not a time where we are all talking and laughing. It is usually the one time of day that I can sit down and not be "at work" or cleaning etc so I usually will read while I eat.

Dinner: This has gone in phases over the years, depending on whether we had a table (a few years ago we were in a small apt. so we just had tv trays) but as of the last year, we always eat at the table together.
I am sure you have heard all the info out there about why it is good for a family to eat together, so I don't want to get all lecture-y, lol! But one thing to consider is that the best way kids can learn good table manners is by having meals together, that way you can show them the right way, correct, praise for good manners etc. We had not been very consistent in eating as a family and finally decided it needed to be done at least every weeknight. The kids HAVE become better with manners. If left to their own devices, they really were eating with their hands, spilling all over the place, getting up and down, using "potty talk" at the table, etc. If we are there, it is a lot better.

that sounds just like us! we do the same for breakfast. my son sits at the coffee table infront of the tv while daughter sits in her booster seat at the table. they watch pbs. lunch its the same thing and dinner sometimes our son sits at the table and other times not. our dinner table is available but most of the time its a gathering place for stuff.

We have minimized a bit and only have one TV in the house. This has helped our overall obsession with TV. I grew up in a household with a TV in EVERY room. We're not an anti-TV family, but trying to reduce the amount of time staring at the TV and come up with more creative things to do with our time. I think its been great for my relationship with my husband because we spend more time talking at dinner, cooking, etc and come up with more fun stuff to do with my kiddo. And I take advantage of the DVR when we have more than one show to watch and then I don't have to watch commercials :)

During breakfast I am often cleaning up the kitchen while my children eat. The tv is off. I am not at the table, but we are together. Lunch we usually eat together at the table. And dinner we almost always all eat together at the table. Once a month or every two months we watch a movie while we eat. But it's a special treat.

We have as many meals together as we can...we eat as a family each night around the kitchen table...we do have a formal dining room table that I guess we should use sometimes, eh?

The TV will be on to Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune or baseball/foot ball - but we do talk about our day....

Breakfast: my youngest son is still asleep - normal for him...my oldest and I eat together....

Lunch - we all eat together around the table - no TV on - just us..

Dinner - as a family...tv will most likely be on - but we are together and TALKING and LAUGHING

We both work FT and DS is 5-1/2. We eat breakfast together at the kitchen table. We have since DS could sit up in a high chair. We eat dinner together either at the kitchen table or (yeah!) at our outside table on the patio in the summer and fall. We eat lunch together on weekends at the table also. Weekdays he eats at a table with his preschool class and teachers.

We eat all our meals at our kitchen/dinning room table...when we are home.
Sometimes we pack a picnic lunch and eat out wherever we are or I might treat the kids to going out for lunch. On occassion, we might eat lunch outside on our picnic table if we are home.

We all eat together and discuss what we are going to do at Breakfast time and then re-cap our day at Dinner time. If I finish before the kids,I might get up and start cleaning up the dishes.

We eat at the kitchen table, but the TV is usually on in the background. Once a week or so though I don't cook and I say "fend for yourselves" and those nights we usually eat in front of the TV or separately. But if I am cooking, which is probably 5 or 6 nights out of the week, we eat at the table. OUr table too ends up as a catch all/work station, but I clean it up and have people move their stuff so we can eat! I think eating together gives us a chance to catch up and hear about everyones day. I keep threatening a no electronic device at the table rule, but I haven't enforced it. Sometimes my hubby has his lap top at the table. I'm just picking my battles now lol.

Breakfast is our family meal where we are all together, but the boys eat at the breakfast bar (with news on in background )and we stand in kitchen drinking coffee, talking, etc.

Lunch - school - or lately my older son has come to work with me off and on and we love having lunch together, sitting down just chatting - such a treat!!

Dinner during the week is a free for all - we all graze and it is horribly disconnected.
dinner on weekends - we all sit down at the table and eat together - acutlly on weekends we eat almost every meal together, but lunch usually a movie or TV is on:)

Some days look very much like yours, others we actually all sit at the table and have a conversation. Lunch is the meal to eat in front of the tv. Breakfast virtually never includes tv time, but I don't sit with kids at the table, I sit at the bar with my back to the table! How awful does that sound :) If my husband isn't home for dinner then the kids and I sit at the table together, which usually means I feed my youngest (who is capable of feeding himself, just really distracted by the end of the day) and talk to my oldest and then eat by myself (peacefully) when they are done. If hubby is home, then he has kid/dinner duty at the table and I sit at the bar...or we all eat outside on the porch and just let the kids play and eat when/how they want.

we always sit @ the table & listen to music or stories on cd
start good habits for them now

We sit at our dining table for every meal with the TV off unless there is a baseball game on (we are die hard Texas Rangers fan and so are our boys) which isnt often during dinner time. We do have special "picnic" on the living room floor as a treat on the weekend from time to time. We love to talk about each others days and what our boys have learned. We have a no phone and no computer rule also, it isnt fair to our boys to not have our 100% undivided attention while they are home with us before bed.

Yes we eat all our meals at the dining room table. That is the rule in my house since I refuse to clean up crumbs and dribble all over the house.

We try to eat together and succeed maybe 40% of the time. I pick my battles this just isn't one of them. :-/

AFTER READING YOUR SO WHAT HAPPENED: How about a card table? You could put a nice table cloth on w/maybe a small vause of flowers and use that for a temporary solution until your home is completed.

Turn the tv and computer off during meals. Find a different workspace for sanding and painting and sit down with your family as many meals as possible. Instead of eating in the car, even if your having fast food, go in sit down and talk to your child.

Blessings...

We usually eat in front of the TV, too. I would like to eat at the kitchen table, but DH grew up eating in front of the TV so that is where HE eats. Kinda hard to enforce family dinner hour when a key part of the family choses to be absent. Also, my dinner table is usually piled high with other stuff- no room for 5 plates. We are working on that!

I was raised to eat at the dinner table, you come when you are called or you don't eat, and you clean your plate, no matter what. When we go visit grandparents, that is the way it still is!

DH was raised completely opposite. Someone cooked and you ate what you wanted, when you wanted, where you wanted. Old habits die hard! One of my pet peeves of DH is that he doesn't always come right away when dinner is ready. I even give 5 and 10 minute warnings.

When we DO manage to sit at the table as a family, we put on music and expand our kids music education.

Breakfast: My oldest sits in the playroom and eats while watching cartoons. 1 1/2 hour later my younger one gets up and eats at the table (he's too messy to eat in the playroom)
Lunch: We eat at the table together, usually cartoons are on.
Dinner: We eat at the table together.

Breakfast during the week is my poor DH feeding three kids by himself as I am already at work. I know it's been quite a morning when I get home and food from our 18 month old is still all over the floor and caked on his booster seat tray.

Lunch - Kids are at school/daycare and eat there. Our friend is licensed daycare provider so follows the DCFS guidelines with nutritious meals. So they get veggie and fruit with their meal

Dinner - Unless we go out...we eat as a family..Usually I cook...Friday's are pizza night and we don't watch too much TV maybe news during dinner but mostly without talking and catching up from the day

the kids sit in the kitchen at thier buzz light year table. they are far too messy to eat anywhere but a plastic table on a tile floor. However, honey and I eat in front of the tv most times.

Breakfast: During the school year, the girls eat breakfast at school. During the summer, like now, they eat breakfast at the bar. We don't have a dining room table anymore because our house is so ridiculously small. I rarely eat breakfast (my breakfast is coffee, more often than not), and I drink it at the bar, 'my office', by the computer. Baby in his high chair (he snacks during th day while running around).

Lunch: The girls eat at the bar, baby in his high chair. I'm usually standing in the kitchen, cleaning between bites of lunch.

Dinner: Girls at the bar, baby in the high chair, my husband and I on the couch over the coffee table.

Totally not ideal, but like I said, we don't have room for a table. If we DID, we would most certainly eat dinner at the table as a family. I actually miss that, a LOT. I think it's important to eat at least one meal a day (dinner), together at the dinner table as a family.

Breakfast he eats at his kiddie table, Lunch kiddie table and sometimes I will sit at the kiddie table with him. Dinner we usually sit down together, but at the kiddie table.

I don't have a dining room table and we use the kiddie table or TV trays even if we have a TV off dinner. I live in an apartment and it it just the 2 of us and I don't see the point in wasting the space with a big table. My dining area I jokingly call my garage b/c I usually keep our bikes, bike trailer, jogging stroller, etc in that area. It works for us :-)

my husband works the graveyard shift and is always sleeping when my son and I get home. but My son eat on the table (most of the time) I eat in front of tv or with him(50/50)