The Family Dinner Poll

[Rufus T. Firefly]

So, the counselors at Little Miss Firefly's school are meeting with kids in groups and conducting surveys on stress. For whatever reason, one of the questions in the survey was, "How often do you eat dinner with your parents?" (I'm guessing they're trying to assess the extent to which parents have the opportunity to hear about what their kids are going through.) It turns out LMF was the only person in the room who eats dinner with her parents with any regularity, let alone the high regularity which she does (generally, 6 days a week). This astonished both her and her classmates, though for different reasons. Her classmates couldn't believe we actually made that kind of time for her every day (and that she enjoyed it as much as we did), while she couldn't believe that her classmates could just shrug and say, as one did, "I just don't know my parents very well."

The kids at her school are not typical, of course; in addition to (or because of) being expat kids, they generally have servants at home, including full-time cooks (we don't, btw). But I do know that every once in a while I read articles about how the family dinner is an endangered institution.

So I made a poll.

[Spec]

Almost always. As a teen, my parents weren't the kind to mess with. Its not like I had a choice. Glad I didn't though.

Teens are idiots. The get on my nerves. Hell, I got on my own nerves when I was a teen.

Spec.

[self biased]

growing up, my stepfather worked second shift, but my mother and i always ate dinner together just about every night except some saturdays.

[Kontiki]

It would have been exceedingly rare for me not to have dinner with my parents every night when I was growing up.

[Elok]

Every night. My parents are both good cooks, too.

[Patroklos]

When I was a kid we ate at the table with the family every night.

Now I eat by myself if I am not cooking for a special lady, whichever one it is that night

[Theben]

When che and I were younger we all ate together almost every night.

After our parents divorced, less and less, until almost never.

Right now gf, daughter, and I don't eat together very often. I think the disorganization/clutter of the kitchen is a strong factor.

[Jon Miller]

we did until my teenage years

when I have a family, it will definitely be an institution

JM

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Elok
Every night. My parents are both good cooks, too.

QFT... It wasn't an institution, it's just what we did. The idea of not having dinner with my family just never came up, unless it was the rare time of going to a friend's house to have dinner with his or her family. That happened a bit more later in high school when I had a regular girlfriend, but it was still a family dinner.

[onodera]

Originally posted by snoopy369

QFT... It wasn't an institution, it's just what we did. The idea of not having dinner with my family just never came up, unless it was the rare time of going to a friend's house to have dinner with his or her family. That happened a bit more later in high school when I had a regular girlfriend, but it was still a family dinner.

Yeah, same here. Why wouldn't people eat together if they're a family?

[Jon Miller]

eating together is the number one thing I like to do with my freinds

JM

[Lorizael]

I ate with my family every night, too, which is totally not the way it was for any of my friends and their families.

[Riesstiu IV]

With my family most of the time. Every once in a while I'd eat dinner while I was over at a friends house but I usually tried to avoid it if I could just because my mom is a really good cook.

[b etor]

every single night.

[Krill]

I rarely ate dinner with my parents, but tbh from the age of 13 I was a loner until I went ot sixth form.