I find it very disturbing that many families no longer share a dinner time together. I know families that never eat dinner together for one reason or another. People look at me like I am crazy when they find out I cook almost every night of the week and we actually sit down as a family to eat.
When I was a child it was the norm for everyone to sit down and have dinner together. There was no television on in the background, the phone was not answered if it rang. Dinner was a time to sit, eat, make plans, and talk.
I know that many people believe that they are too busy to all sit down together for a meal. However, I think that if people really looked at their schedules they could shift a few things around to make dinner as a family a priority at least a few times a week.
Dinner time is more than about sharing a meal together. It is a time to reconnect as a family and to check in on everyone to see how their day was. It is a time for teaching. It is a time where you can have your children’s full attention. It is also a time when your children can have your full attention. One key to having the full attention of other family members is to have no phones or television during dinner time.
For us, time together as a family is important. We eat dinner together almost every night of the week because dinner is about the only time we are all together due to our schedules. I want my children to grow up knowing that even when we are busy we still have time to sit with them and communicate with them with no outside distractions. Dinner time together is the perfect time to do that.