Friday, May 24, 2013

What I'd Miss If We Didn't Have Dinner Together



Eating dinner together has always been a priority in our family.  When our kids were smaller, it was just something we did.  As our older kiddo's grew, it became something we purposely did.  Now all our kids know that it is just expected that we will all be at dinner together.  Now that we have a couple of teenagers, there are days when we are missing a child or two.  But this is the exception and not the rule.

This is our time to connect as a family.  Hubby works from 7:30AM-5:00PM, so he is away from the home most of the day.   Dinner is the time when all the kiddo's get to sit down with Daddy and talk with him.  If we didn't have dinner together, we'd miss some opportunities for good communication.

We get to hear some pretty funny stories during dinner time.  We would miss this time if we didn't spend dinners together.  The silliness is usually from our youngest 2 children,  and sometimes we can't believe the things they come up with. 

We find out things we never knew about.  This is usually from our oldest 2 children.  We've found that they will admit things~especially things they may have done when they were younger~or freely talk about things we never knew about.  For instance we recently found out about some mischief on Stinkerbelle's part when she was about 6 years old.  We would miss out on these opportunities if we didn't have meals together.

We get to meet people we may not have the opportunity to meet otherwise.  Since our older kiddo's know that family dinners are important, they are more likely to invite a friend over for dinner if they want to spend time with that person.  There's always room at our dinner table for more.  We've had great discussions with many kids {who were not ours!} at our dinner table.  We would have probably missed out on those connections if we didn't have dinner together.

We'd miss family devotions.  After dinner each  night hubby leads family devotions.  We have several different devotionals we use.  Since we have both small and older kiddo's, we like to mix it up so we are reaching each of them at some point during the week.  As Sweetcheeks is learning to read, she likes to try reading our preschool devotional.  Yes, it's very simplistic for our 16 year old {not to mention that she's heard it many times already!}, but it is something that our 4 year old understands.  We would miss these opportunities for character building and strengthening our spiritual walk if we didn't have dinner together each night.

Taking our time at the table and just enjoying each other is something I look forward to each day.  We're teaching our children that family is important as is family time together.  Unfortunately in our society, this is something that is declining as we are all in such a hurry to get to the next thing.  If family dinner's are an area your family struggles in, take small steps to get there.  Start by scheduling one night a week and work your way up.  Most of all, enjoy the time together {in our house, this also means no phone calls or electronic devices!}.  You'll be glad you did!

Blessings,

6 comments:

  1. We do family dinner at our house too. We get to hear about how the preschooler gave her elegant teacher worms as a present and asked her to make them for lunch. Or hear some terrible pun from our 11 year old, "So…do they always shoot chickens in…Bangkok." Ha ha. It's important and worth doing!

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  2. I so agree with you...these are special times. And when you become an empty-nester like my husband and me, you will look back at those family meals as a little piece of heaven and miss them. But you'll know they are a foreshadowing of the marriage banquet we'll have in heaven.

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  3. Yes! I was blessed with parents who made family dinner time a priority, so I had a good example to follow. We love family dinner time, too. We have ages four through 13 at our table, and they are so entertaining! The laughter and camaraderie is priceless. And as you said, often you find out things that might not otherwise have been shared, like when our seven-year-old son admitted to being bullied at school. I'm so thankful he had the oppotunity to share that with us!

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  4. Eating dinner together has always been a priority in our family too. It is harder as our family has shrunk and not everyone is home each night...but whoever is home eats together.

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  5. Oops, I meant to say I hopped over from The Mom Initiative and found you, a familiar face!!! Have a wonderful day!!

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  6. Jess...I concur! Our family dinners are a definite in our home. Our oldest does not live at home so we are intentional to eat with him at least once a week since he lives away from home. That meal is never a short one...since he appreciates that time with his family and vice versa. Hopefully, we all are leaving an importance legacy lesson to our children and they will continue this practice in their own home one day. Thank you for sharing this at WJIM this week. Blessings.

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