Supper at Home -- A Poll

[Ellen Cherry]

Inspired by featherlou's thread on guilty pleasure eating ...

I am wondering how many people eat supper at home with their family every night. The lack of family sit-down meals has been decried in the media, and in one of my children's classes, their "assignment" was to have dinner with their entire family "one day this week."

Now, I do love to cook and do it often. But I was raised in a family that ate together every night and it just seems right to me. I cook some on the weekends to have enough for every night (I work full-time), but frequently I arrive home, open the fridge, stare, and come up with a dinner for my husband, three children and I. The only night I don't cook is one night a week when my older children are with their dad, and hubby and I pick up pizza on the way home.

Tonight I'm fixing pork loin roast, green beans, mashed potatoes or rice (a once-a-week occurence; normally I fix two veggies) and a green salad.

I made the pork roast yesterday and put it in the fridge for slicing. For lunch all week, my husband I will eat on the big pot of split-pea soup I also made this weekend (with cornbread).

So, the poll:

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

If you're in college, feel free to tell us about your family meals at home.

[burundi]

It's just my husband and I at home. I feel the same way you do about eating meals with family. We usually eat supper at home 4-5 nights a week. I have class one night a week, and we'll often go out to eat on Friday or Saturday nights. I definitely notice a shift in atmosphere when we can't manage to sit down for a home-cooked meal together most nights. Things get much more tense.

[lieu]

It is just the three of us and our kid is six years old so eating meals together is very much the norm. I'd imagine there's only one dinner every couple of weeks where we're not all together. We think that's important, a chance to catch up and share and plan. Usually TV is off and we've just got background music on, although during football season this of course can't always be observed.

Our girl is very much involved with sports and other extra-curriculars and I imagine as she gets older, following this custom will meet with increasing difficulty.

[MovieMogul]

1. I eat a home-cooked meal (usually cooked by me) 6-7 days/week. This usually includes at least one meal (if not several) on both Saturday and Sunday. I also make my own lunches which I bring to work. I generally only eat out if I'm seeing a movie after work.
2. I have a wife. She doesn't eat at home nearly as often as I do. We'll eat together on the weekends, but she's more likely to stay late and eat dinner out, and she always eats out for lunch during the work week, too.
3. NA

[Dolores Reborn]

My husband, my dad and I eat at home every night. I love to cook, and I plan meals and grocery shop on Sunday. We don't exactly sit down and eat, Dad is usually at the kitchen table, and we are in front of the TV. It's open though, so we're really all together. Sometimes if there's a football game on, he will eat in the den with us.

Tonight I'm making Parmesan Tilapia - a very simple dish - with fresh broccoli and baked fries.

(I work full time, as does my husband. Dad is 83 and retired, but in great health.)

We do eat out every couple of months, though.

[DudleyGarrett]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?

About 5. We eat out twice a week or so. Sometimes we'll go and eat dinner and have a few drinks at a local tavern.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?

Just me and my wife. No kids.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

N/A

[scout1222]

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

So, the poll:

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

I live with my fiance, and we have no children.

I cook dinner usually twice a week, and what I cook will generate leftovers. So a third night of the week we'll sit down together and eat leftovers. Let's see, that's 3 days. Then a fourth I'll reheat leftovers again for myself, and that's on a night we both have classes/commitments that don't allow us to dine together. Depending on the week, there might be a fifth night where I do the same thing. On those nights I'm reheating leftovers for myself, he's grabbing dinner on the go somewhere.

Once we hit the weekends (Friday and Saturday nights) we dine out almost 100% of the time.

[Solfy]

Family dinners were strictly enforced in my house growing up. I've maintained the tradition. I insisted on eating together when we were newlyweds, which my new husband thought was a little odd. He suggested we wait until we had an actual family. I told him we were a family of two. He's come around to the idea as it's often the only time we get to sit down with each other and talk without distractions.

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal? Seven with the occasional meal out or take-out (once or twice a month).

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
Family with two small kids

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
The girls are too little to interfere, but twice a month my husband has a Lions dinner meeting. Occasionally I'll get home from work late and tell them to go ahead and eat without me.

[Creaky]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
My boyfriend and I eat a home-cooked meal togther approximately five nights a week. We don't live together but I've got him on a diet and it's worth it to me to cook for both of us knowing that he's eating well. He's lost ten pounds and is going for ten more. The cooking is a pain sometimes but I keep it simple. On weekends he's allowed some latitude.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
I live alone.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
N/A

[C3]

I have a husband and two small kids (no major activities, yet). We eat a homecooked dinner together every night. We also eat homecooked breakfasts together on the weekends. Tonight, we're having fajitas! Every once in awhile (every few months), we'll get carryout or we'll eat out together.

As the kids get older, we'll have to see how it goes. I'd like to limit their activities, though, so that they're not missing out on too much family time. When I was growing up, we very rarely missed dinner together, even though my brother and I had a lot of things we were involved in (and my parents did, too). I'm hoping we can work activities around our family, rather than the other way around, but I don't know how possible that will be by the time my kids are older.

[fishbicycle]

It's just my wife and me, no kids. We eat together every day, unless it's one of those days where one of us doesn't feel like eating, then we will each forage. Normally, we take turns cooking, and have dinner together every day, even if it's at 10:30.

[Avarie537]

We try to eat dinner as a family every night. It doesn't always happen. Hubby is in Tae Kwon Do twice a week, and I'm a Mary Kay consultant who sees a therapist every two weeks. We try eat together before or after these events if at all possible. On Fridays, we go to my in-laws' for dinner, so that's a BIG family dinner - MIL, FIL, me, Hubby, Spencer, BIL, SIL, their three kids, and often other friends/relatives. The weekens vary. We try to see friends at least one night, but that's usually for a home-cooked meal at someone's house.

[Ellen Cherry]

I feel the same as you, C3. I hope to always plan our events around our family and not have our lives running us.

Your mention of fajitas reminded me how kids love little traditions. In no time flat, my unplanned tacos on Tuesday became *~ Taco Tuesday! ~* which they love dearly.

Most of the time I don't make anything all that fancy or time-consuming, which is why it puzzles me when people say they have no time to cook. Chicken breasts on the George Forman, frozen peas in the microwave, how long does that take? Not long, and very little effort.

[Khadaji]

I usually eat dinner at home, if I eat.
I am single
No children.

[Quartz]

I'm single. 3+ days a week I eat out, because otherwise I'd be eating after 22:00.

[3acresandatruck]

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

So, the poll:

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

1. seven days a week
2. I live alone
3. n/a

[Litoris]

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

1. On average, we eat a home-cooked meal (at home) 6 days out of 7. Some weeks we might go out more than once, but on average, less than that.
2. I am married, with 2 kids (15 year old girl, 7 year old boy)
3. My daughter has a lot of activities, but the only time they interfere is during football season -- she has to play at the games, and then on Saturdays, she has competitions which sometimes last all evening. Of course, I didn't average those into the answer for #1, since it's only like 3 months out of the year.

I have always been a big enforcer of the family meal. Not only do we sit down to dinner together every night (unless circumstances won't permit) but I also make breakfast every morning. Real breakfast, not cereal or muffins -- this morning I made Spam and egg biscuit sandwiches. (yeh, my family likes the occasional spam chop -- ick!)

For dinner tonight, we will be having spaghetti with meat marinara, cheesy garlic bread and probably meatballs -- depending on whether or not LitHubby will pick up ground turkey.

FTR, no subject is verboten at our dinner table -- it's the time I use to get to know my kids and find out about their lives. Funny thing is, I probably know more about all their friends' lives than said friends' parents do! We enjoy dinner time and even when we go out to eat, we have discussions over dinner.

FWIW, I did not grow up in a household with family dinners. My mother stopped cooking (except for if/when company came over) completely when I was tall enough to reach the knobs on the stove, so I could cook for myself. I was 7, I believe. One of my brothers and I are fabulous cooks, but oddly my other brother and my sister are horrible, funny that.

[DoctorJ]

1. Probably 4-5 times a week. We usually eat out on Friday, and a lot of times we'll be running around somewhere on Saturday. We probably order in or get takeout on a weeknight once every couple of weeks.

2. It's just the two of us.

[stucco]

For when I'm at home:

1. Family dinner is 7 days a week.

2. I go to college but I'm home about a month a year.

3. When I was in high school I never had activities that interferred. I'm not sure why. Sometimes dinner would be later because I had an activity that went until 7 or something.

I live with two roommates and we try and coordinate when we eat dinner so we eat together, even though we cook seperately.

[WhyNot]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
Well that's a little different than how many days we eat at home together, innit? I cook 5-6 days a week and order in 1 or 2. I'm trying to cut down on the ordering, but I admit it - after a full day with three toddlers and helping four teenagers with their homework (only one of each cohort is my own!), I'm really just too tired and frazzled to cook on top of it, so order we shall. We eat out maybe twice a month, and that's usually a Sunday breakfast, rarely a dinner.

We do eat in front of the television, usually watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on DVR. Even the toddler loves them; she calls Colbert "The Funny Guy!" I threw myself a guilt fest once over this until I really observed us one day - we frequently pause and discuss and talk over the show, then rewind it to watch what we missed. It's seriously as if we had these wacky other family members with us at the table breaking the ice and spurring conversation. So I got over it, since I really do enjoy it, and so do the kids and my husband. When she starts understanding more of what they're saying, we'll stick The Muppet Show back in our queue for dinnertime theater.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
I live with my husband and two kids, 14 and 2. And two cats, who perch on the sofa while we eat and try to look like they belong.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
Nope. We've all made a conscious an concerted effort to end all outside activities by 6:30, after which is "family time." This is hardest for me, actually, since my two best friends live only steps away, and I want to go hang out after all those children have left. But it's really important to my husband, and I feel like it "should" be important for me. And if I'm honest I do notice that we all relate better when we've had that time, television "guests" to dinner or no.

I suppose that may change when WhyKid gets a job in a couple of years, but I hope he'll be home for dinner at least a few nights a week.

[Ephemera]

1. About three to four times a week, probably. We scrounge the other nights.
2. I'm the kid and currently living with my mother to help her and my stepfather with their bills.
3. TV and the internet. We used to eat dinner together a lot when I was a teen and child but now that I'm in my twenties, we eat together a couple times a mont.

[MissGypsy]

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

So, the poll:

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

1. I cook 5-6 nights a week. I also expect everyone to sit at the table and eat at the same time, except for me. I prefer a later dinner, around 8 or 9, and they all need to eat around 5.

2. We’re a family of 6-7, with one kid in college, one in kindergarten, and two in diapers, plus another high-schooler who visits occasionally.

3. Our little ones are too young for activities so far, and the older ones tend to fend for themselves.

I always like a family dining together, because that’s how I was raised. I like the idle chit-chat about how your day went, what’s new, etc. My family seems to prefer watching movies or reading books alone, while they eat. I’ve sort of bullied them into sitting at the table and pretending to be interested in each other.

[susan]

How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
6 is typical, though "home cooked" may include commercially prepared/prepackaged foods like ravioli or soup, usually improved.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
I do not live alone; I live in a family without kids.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
NA, but sometimes my work or my partner's interferes with dinner, in which case we eat out or fend for ourselves at home.

If we're both available, which is usually the case, one of us makes dinner and we eat it together.

Both of us are from families that ate (and still eat) sit-down dinners the majority of the time.

[TimeWinder]

1. Maybe one. Usually we eat out. It costs a bit more to eat out all the time, but not a lot, especially since neither of us is a big fan of leftovers. We eat *together* every night, though -- we just don't do it at home.
2. Just my wife and I.
3. N/A

[LVgeogeek]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?

We eat "home cooked" dinner anywhere from 3 to 6 days a week. Our schedules can be really crazy sometimes. Long field days, late getting home [normally we are both home around 6pm], forgetting to defrost something usually leads to going out to eat.

When I was a kid, we rarely ate out because we didn't have the money.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?

It's just me and the Mr.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

N/A

[BetsQ]

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

1. Probably 5-6 dinners/week (if we're counting mac-and-cheese from a box as a home-cooked meal). However, the hubby and I have vastly different eating habits so we almost never have a meal that all four of us (me, hubby, two kids) all eat. Usually I prepare dinner for myself and the kids and hubby is on his own. We're also not so good about eating at the same time at the dinner table. Usually The Simpsons is involved.

2. Two parents, two kids.

3. Kids' activities don't interfere - they're too young. But, sometimes the hubby works past what I consider dinner time, and sometimes I'm on campus in the evening.

[Queen Bruin]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
I make dinner 6-7 days a week. I rarely use anything that comes in a box - au gratin potatoes are made from scratch so long as I am at the helm. I have my occasional weak moments, though.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
My husband and I live with other adults - I cook for all of us, usually 4-6 but a dozen on the weekends is not uncommon (which may or may not include kids). There is an open door policy with dinner, as long as I get advance warning.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
N/A - although my husband is in night school so although I may cook those nights we won't usually get to eat together. I sleep for a while then get up and heat dinner for him and chat. Tuesdays and Thursdays I get home in the early evening, so it's something quick and easy. Wednesdays I commute with my husband, so I throw something in the Crockpot for everyone else to eat at their leisure and reheat when we get home (after 11PM). Barring those days and the erratic schedules of others we all eat together, and everyone knows dinner is on at 7:30-8.

[Flutterby]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
6-7 days a week. Currently 6, as I go to school one night a week. We used to do a lot more tossing frozen stuff in the oven, but there's been less of that lately. We hardly ever have frozen kiev or chicken fingers anymore. We take turns, generally I cook on weekend and since I tend to cook large there's always leftovers as well as enough to put in the freezer for more meals. We don't order in much anymore either. Too much hassle (seriously, it's easier to make my own food than to wait for an hour for a probably incorrect or cold order).

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
There's three of us. Mom, me and my son.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
Too young for sports yet.

[Czarcasm]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
About 4, maybe 5.
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
Me, my Beloved, and Zippy Cat(who refuses to eat alone.)
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
N/A

[TokyoBayer]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
Maybe 5 days a week. My wife and I like cooking together and we'll each make a dish or two while we talk. Sometimes when one of us is particularly tired the other will do all the cooking.

I grew up with a family that never ate out (the first time I ate in a restaurant was when I was 15, although we very occasionally would buy hamburgers and eat them at home).

My wife used to eat with the tv going on, but I convinced her to keep it off. We keep dinner for conversation. My wife eats slowly, so usually will do the dishes while she finishes up.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
There's just the two of us.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
N/A

[nonacetone]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
* We eat home-cooked meals every day. The only time we go out to eat, is when my husband is home, and then it's not every time. Usually we just go out for anniversaries, birthdays, etc.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
* It's our daughter, my grandmother, myself and my husband, when he's home, which is about 3 days every two weeks. Sometimes friends come for dinner, too. I always make more than we can eat, so it's not ever a problem having an extra mouth or two to feed.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
* No. Our daughter is out of school now, and if she's not home for meals, she's out with friends or working, but it doesn't interfere with the meal. We still eat at the usual time.

[AuntiePam]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?

Once, breakfast on Sunday

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?

Husband, no kids

We work different shifts, and it's rare that both of us are home with time enough for a meal during the week.

But, when I had kids at home, we had supper at home every night, and breakfast-lunch-dinner on weekends. The kids had no money of their own for meals away from home, so if they wanted to eat, they had to be home.

[ScareyFaerie]

So, the poll:

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
Probably only four, it depends on what we're doing. We take it in turns to cook and the intention is that we cook Sunday-Wednesday. I usually plan to have leftovers from Wednesday night for a meal on Thursday because I need to get to my language class so I have very little time to cook, eat, wash dishes etc. Friday night is grocery shopping night which entails collecting Chinese on the way home. Saturday is often either eating out because it's our weekly treat, but again it depends on what we might be doing during the day. Sunday is the day I usually put a crockpot on for soup, which is lunch for most of the week.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
There's just me and 'im indoors, although the cats are very interested in what we're cooking so we usually have two mogs doing the big-eyed pitiful looks. Shadow is particularly interested in anything that involves bacon, which he prefers raw to cooked. Ophelia is a big chicken fan but has been known to give lamb the time of day.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
Kids? :shudder:

[Ruken]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
I rarely eat out or get carryout/delivery. Lately I've been having lab meetings once a week at 8:30PM (really fun when I wake up at 6:30AM), so I'll buy food then, but otherwise I eat something at home that I cooked at home.
I only cook one "real" meal per week, usually Sunday. This becomes my lunch food for the week. The rest of the week I'll eat something simple, like an egg sandwich.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
I live with one of my co-workers.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
She's not a kid, but we work pretty much the same hours and usually have dinner together after work, ~9-10PM. We make our own food separately though.

If you're in college, feel free to tell us about your family meals at home.
When I lived at home we pretty much always at a home-cooked meal together. Sometimes on Friday my father would pick up something to eat on the way home from work. The meals weren't always complicated. At one point when my mother was sick and my father was often working late, cooking would be up to me. This would usually be pasta or omelets or the like.

[Ellen Cherry]

BooFae, you crack me up.

I have enjoyed reading everyone's responses so much; thank you! I'm naturally nosy (as is everyone here, natch) so it's been an interesting peek into everyone's personal eating lives.

And of course I consider Kraft Mac 'n Cheese a home-cooked meal. It's one of the four main food groups, no?

[GingerOfTheNorth]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
Probably seven. My schedule means I'm not home for supper on Tuesdays; my husband's is variable due to his clients' whims and he will not be home for dinner perhaps two nights of the week. Odds are good he won't get take-out but eat when he comes home. Even when I'm at work, I don't eat take-out except perhaps once a month; I take my dinner with me. If you want to know how many nights a week we eat dinner together, that would probably be five or six.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
I am married and we have two children, nearly three and nearly fourteen.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
The older boy's activities are a club twice a week which ends before dinner time, and martial arts with his dad twice a week. Sunday nights, they eat dinner after their martial arts class, as it begins at 6:00 and eating too close to it is not a good idea. We still eat dinner together on those nights.

[Marienee]

So, the poll:

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?

Every day, breakfast and dinner for me and the kids and lunch and dinner for Dearly Beloved (he takes his lunch to work and most often it's leftovers. Does that count?).

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

They have footie practice once a week at 6 and swim lessons once a week at 5. It's a great year this year, though they play on different teams and swim in different classes I somehow managed to get it set up so they are doing it on the same day at the same time (yay). Once a week Eldest has Speech Therapy in the late afternoon.

Usually on those days we eat something I made double on some other day and have in the freezer. Maybe once a month I will throw in the towel and send Dearly Beloved out for take out. But you know, by the time he can go and get back I can usually come up with something and I am not wild about take out. Usually we have take out when I have forgotten to take anything out of the freezer or am otherwise so tired I find making french toast to be unreasonably demanding.

[plnnr]

We eat dinner at home nearly every night. We go out to dinner maybe once or twice a month. My wife works late two nights a week, and I wait to have dinner with her.

We have my daughter two weekday nights plus alternate weekends. She sometimes eats earlier than my wife and I do when my wife is working.

Yes, my daughter has activities but they cannot encroach upon dinner time.

[overlyverbose]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
About 6-7 times a week. I usually do as much cooking on the weekends as possible so we have home-cooked food ready during the week. That way I don't have to cook or clean as much when I get home from work.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
We have one kid - 17 months old.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
Not applicable yet.

It's very important to me to eat with my family now that we actually do it. Not only does it prevent me from having to ready two meals at night after getting home from my full-time job, it also helps me reconnect with my husband and spend time with my son. It's also a good way to lay the foundation for table manners and it helps me lose weight, too, since I consider the kitchen closed after dinner is cleared away.

We only recently began eating as a family on a regular basis about four weeks ago. One day I just got completely fed up. I wasn't preparing food in advance, so I'd have to cook and clean twice every single night. My husband and I weren't eating until 9 p.m. (after we'd put our son to bed), and I'm a snacker - I'll snack until dinner, when I stop. So I was probably putting about 400-500 extra calories in my mouth a day. Plus, since I was cooking and cleaning twice, I wasn't able to relax at all at night because I was always trying to catch up in the kitchen. So I discussed it with my husband, explained why this was not working for me and we adjusted what we were doing.

Since then, I've really thoroughly enjoyed dinnertime. There are times when our son acts up, of course, but by and large, it's win-win. I've also been losing weight because I haven't been snacking as much and I have more time to exercise and relax (I used to not be able to do both - I'd have to choose or stay up until midnight) at night, which is better for my sanity and my husband's.

For the record, when I was living with my mom as a teenager, it was typical practice for me, my mom and my sister to each eat in separate rooms. I never really appreciated eating as a family until now. I hope we don't fall off the wagon because I'm really appreciating the additional time I have with my family and by myself.

[Dinsdale]

1. Nearly every night
2. 2 high school kids at home
3. kids and adults are expected to make every effort to avoid conflicts with dinner.

[The Chao Goes Mu]

My partner and I eat dinner together every night. I'd say 5 or 6 of those dinners are home cooked. We both love to cook so we cook together and sit down at the table, no t.v. allowed, and talk about our day. We have no children. We both came from families where dinner time was a family event sans t.v. and we both really look forward to that time together. It's nice after a long day at work to have that relaxing time, to not have to eat on the run and to be with someone with whom I love to be with. If we decide to have kids, family dinner time will be a tradition we'll pass on.


That's not to say ocassionally we don't order a greasy pizza and flop our asses in front of the tube to catch up on our favorite shows.

[Missy2U]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?

Seven - at least ONE of the people in the household will eat a home-cooked meal.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?

Family - husband and 17 yr old.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?

Son works or is doing homework - we never sit down and eat together unless it's a holiday or something. I usually don't eat dinner, son gets his when he feels like it, husband does the same.

Aside:

Although I love to cook, I just don't anymore. Except for special occasions. Some weekends we'll barbeque and all eat at the same time (we did that Sunday as a matter of fact) but we don't eat together. Son went upstairs, husband and I were in the same room but he was at the table reading the paper and I was reading a book and watching TV.

[Sal Ammoniac]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal? Most nights -- call it 6.5 on average.
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids? Me, my wife, 3 kids.
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner? Twice a week, one of the kids is at practice, and so eats after the rest of us.

Retro, ain't we?

[taxi78cab]

We usually eat at home ~6 nights a week. I cook most weeknights, and KeithT cooks on weekends. We usually go out one night a week just so someone else does all the work (especially the cleanup!), and we each go out once or twice a week for lunch. The rest of the time we take leftovers to work for lunches.

We do tend to eat in front of the tv, but mostly because there's too much junk on the dining room table to sit there to eat. It's right next to the door where we come in so it's where I put the mail and KeithT puts his lunch cooler and so on. I grew up with dinner at the dining room table with the whole family so I still have a lot of guilt about dinner in front of the tv. But it works for us and we chat while watching tv.

It's just the two of us, no kids.

[Lissla Lissar]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?

Quite often. I do a lot of cooking.

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?

I'm married, one kid on the way. We only eat meals together about once a week. On Saturdays, or very occasionally Wednesday. We both have weird schedules. I eat at home more than he does because he's practically never at home at mealtimes. In spite of that, when either of us is home, we're usually eating homemade food. It's just from the fridge, and heated up.

I'd like to change this so we eat dinner together several times a week after the kid is born.

[tremorviolet]

Single and I live by myself.

I eat dinner at home at least six nights a week. However, I don't cook; I get precooked vegetables and tofu from Whole Foods. So I guess that doesn't count as home -cooked but it's not really take-out either...

[rucciface]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?
My last home cooked meal was in March of this year. I honestly don't remember the last time I went to the grocery store. The benefit of working in a restaurant.
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?
I live alone.
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?
N/A

[Kilvert's Pagan]

1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?Six. We have a tradition of going out to eat on Sundays.
2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?Family with kids.
3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?Not yet, but they're still young. If something goes until, say, 630PM or so, my wife usually fires up the crock pot.

We also have no television anywhere near the table.

[Cat Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

<snip>1. How many days a week do you eat a home-cooked meal?

Usually 4 or 5. I get lazy on the weekends since I am the only one who cooks here (my husband can and will make the occasional dinner, but it's usually me).

2. Do you live alone, or are you part of a family with kids?

I'm part of a family with my husband.

3. If kids, do they play sports or have other activities which interfere with dinner?<snip>

No kids.

ETA: My family had a tradition we called night-lunch - very casual, but we would usually all end up in the kitchen having a snack and chat before going to bed. This tradition generated a lot of my best memories of my family.

[flodnak]

We eat supper at home 5-6 nights a week, and it's rare that all of us aren't gathered around the table. (On the other hand, breakfast together is a freakishly rare occurance, though I can sometimes manage to assemble the troops for Sunday brunch with the promise of pancakes or some such.)

"We" means my husband, me, and our two sons, ages 13 and 7.

They have no activities that interfere with supper - we've sometimes moved suppertime a little earlier or later because of, say, somebody's swim class one day a week. If a number of activities made it impossible to come together for the evening meal, we'd take that as a sign that they had too many activities scheduled that day.