Two parents, two kids (10&12). Evening meal is always together/no screen time (TV is in the family room, and the computer is too far away). Once a week I work late, but the rest of the family eats the same. No phones - ever - but then the kids don’t have their own cells at present.
Not some smug thing - we really like to talk to the kids during dinner and (hopefully) teach them some conversational and debate skills. Seems to be working so far.
I got nothin’ against people who prefer their devices to family, however. Whatever floats your boat.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but it kind of shocks me that people would have the TV on and/or text and/or be on computers during dinner.
Our TV is in our living room, and we eat dinner in the kitchen. In fact, I don’t even like to hear the TV being on in the living room while we’re eating in the kitchen. Of course, I have been known to be a bit of a TV hater, so maybe that’s part of it.
Two parents and a 14 yo boy in our family: All of the above, well, not the kitchen sink bit.
If it’s together with screens, it’s the whole family watching a movie or catching up on a favorite TV show.
If it’s separate it’s often because teen son is busy doing stuff or homework or whatever.
We do together w/o screens a couple times a week.
That being said, we are often all in the same room cooking dinner together or Kiddo is doing homework and we’re cooking and we talk and do all those thing other people only do at the dinner table.
I’m shocked too. We eat in front of the TV maybe once a year. It would be so rude and impersonal to have a screen going when having dinner, I don’t think it would occur to any of us. We aren’t all together every night, but we usually are, and we eat, talk about the day, future plans, etc. This is me, my husband and 4 kids, ages 9, 11, 13 and 15.
When dinner is portable, or I’ve covered the dining table with a project, my son and I will eat in the living room and watch Jeopardy. That is the only screen that is ever allowed for either of us during dinner.
Together - no screens - it’s when we talk about our day and about what fun or interesting or scary thing is coming up in the next few days that we want to discuss.
Also - it’s when my daughter asks us disgusting bodily-function questions and about where babies come from. Wouldn’t miss it for the world! (My husband sometimes looks like he would love to miss it)
We eat together in front of the TV. I also don’t really feel eating needs to be a communal activity but for him, eating, and feeding, is love. (And he’s really skinny, too!) He thinks it’s very important and I have to eat anyway, so, sure - but I’m not really sure how we’re eating “together” if we’re watching movies.
We all sit down together at the table and eat. Rules are: No reading, no electronic devices, and no talking about computer games, TV shows, or movies that not everyone at the table has played/seen. (This stops the inevitable Minecraft discussions from dominating dinner table discussion.)
On weekends we tend to go more casual and I let the kids just “picnic” in front of the TV set with their dinner while I read a book and eat. but for most weeknights we have a family dinner together.
I posted my response before reading the rest of the posts in the thread.
Sad? Pleasant? You are assigning a value judgment to how people choose to eat dinner with their families. What difference does it make to you whether someone else follows the same rules you set for your own household? It doesn’t make you or them better or worse for doing so.
Five nights a week the three of us eat together at the kitchen table with no electronics in sight and we usually let the machine pick up phone call during mealtime.
One night a week, Friday, we go out to dinner, where there may or may not be a television screen in view depending on the type of restaurant.
One night a week my daughter and I eat together in the kitchen with no screens while my wife is out at her night class.
Breakfast and lunch we eat separately, but dinner is virtually always together and most times there are no electronic devices around.
that is not my intent. we’ve always eaten separately and i wondered how normal people do it, and whether what is often depicted on TV common. i hope i had not tainted the poll results with my comment, for it has gone up to 60% now (out of 102) votes.
i’ve learnt from WhyNot that neither way is necessarily better, and i agree.
When I was living on my own with my daughter, we always had dinner at the table, with no tv. Unfortunately, living with my parents now, it’s not an option. The tv is always on and the table is directly in view of it.
We’re old (my husband and I are in our 50s, mother in law is 91) and we eat together, at the kitchen table, no electronics. I usually leave my phone in another room. My husband’s phone is in his pocket and while he might occasionally whip it out to answer a question or take a call that is not the norm.
Interestingly, that’s how I grew up too. I have a big family (4 siblings) and my mom insisted that we have dinner together each night with no distractions. I have nothing but good memories of the family table. It was always fun.
My wife and I and the Firebug, currently 5 years old, eat dinner together pretty much every night. No TV, no other electronic gizmos, no books. It’s family time. We talk. Music in the background is OK, as long as it’s at a background level.
My wife and I were both raised that way, and wouldn’t dream of doing it any other way. The kid can watch DVDs all evening if he wants, but not at the dinner table.