This past week Mr. 1 had his well visit check up. One of the questions that was asked was “how many times a week do you eat dinner as a family?” He sort of chuckled because it was an easy question to answer, typically we eat together 7 days a week. Of course in our current living situation Mister isn’t with us during the week but the boys and I eat every meal together. Now I acknowledge that my children are under 10 so our schedule of activities is different than families with older kids. I also acknowledge that we are homeschooling so we are home together more than other families. Even if we don’t eat dinner together we have most likely had breakfast and lunch together at our table.
I can remember in our early days of parenthood and Mister worked the night shift. I would prepare our big meal of the day at lunch, we’d eat together, Mr. 1 would go down for his nap, Mister and I would have a few minutes to chill together and then he’d go to work for the evening. The point is not that you sit together between 5 and 7pm. It’s simply that you are together sharing a meal. If you desire for your family to increase the number of family meals each week here are some things to remember: It doesn’t have to be dinner. Any meal or even snack will give your family a chance to connect, nourish your bodies and be together. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You can connect over a full dish of lasagna with a side salad and garlic bread just the same way you can over PB&J’s and a cup of milk. Be creative if you cant be in your home at meal time. Right now we are not with Mr. 1 during the week as our home is being built. We do see him each week at our Trail Life meeting. I’ve been prepping a meal either to pop in the oven at church or bringing my Instant Pot with a meal I cooked in it the night before. We break out a folding table and paper plates and dive in. It doesn’t take much more work than making it at home and it’s a lot cheaper than going out to dinner with a family of 6. Don’t think it’ll happen over night. There are different seasons (not just sports seasons) of life. Sometimes you’ll have more or less time at the table together. If you work together to just increase how many meals a week you and your family have in the coming weeks, it’ll get easier and you’ll see soon see the fruits of those connections between your family.
I hope this quick list of ways our family works to break bread together helps you and your family as often as possible. Let me know what works and doesn’t work for your family in reaching these goals!
