Family Dinner

So even with the best of intentions I haven't posted anything in a while. I know that probably not many read these besides my friends but I can be hopeful that other may benefit from my crazy wisdom. We all live very busy lives. I agree.. on Facebook NPR they posed a question about family dinners and suggested that people email their experiences with thier families. This is what I sent. Maybe I'll get a call. What dinner looks like for our family We are a typical middle class family with two working parents. My husband is in sales and I’m a full time teacher. Sometimes dinner is a challenge because on a weeknight we are usually not eating until 7 after arriving home between 5:30 pm and 6 pm. My husband and I were both brought up with having nightly family dinners. My favorite thing he says is that it is his favorite time of time to catch up with all of us. My girls are a little bit younger and do not have too many extracurricular activities that prevent us from our daily dinners. On average we sit down together 5 nights a week. They may not always like what I have fixed but at least they try it. I grew up with my family sitting down together every night. I do feel that in our busy society that this is not happening enough. This is the time that we can talk to our kids about what they did that day and what we did with our day. It is not always easy to come home and spend the time to fix a meal for everyone. I feel that it is important to have that connection, even when they don’t eat what I fixed. I hate that the sit down family meal is becoming a lost art. After dinner it’s usually off to the bath tub for my 5 year old (my 10 year old has started bathing in the morning). We continue with story time and bed. On the weeknights there really isn’t much time for anything else. So the schedule goes: homework (if not already done at afterschool) Dinner, bath, reading and then bed. I teach Middle School so I don’t get out of work until 4:30. It’s amazing how quick time goes after this. Plus we live in a very congested area of Johns Creek, GA and traffic also plays a role in what time we get home.