Our boys are picky eaters. (Probably my fault for spoiling them as babies and not forcing them to eat their broccoli) They don’t like meat or sandwiches or a bunch of other normal foods.. Not even PIZZA !!!!…They have a medium sized list of foods they DO like. I try to keep their favorite food in the house all the time. What I am hoping is that the “teenage boy appetite” thing people talk about will happen to each of them and cure that problem……They are both healthy and growing nicely and so … it’s ok for now ….
Also, all 4 of the kids have some sort of evening activity randomly through the week.. Not to mention, Steve and I have random stuff going on as well.., We all tend to walk in the door and eat dinner when we eventually get home from wherever we are.
As a result, we can not always sit down to eat a meal together.
There are nights that everyone is home together AND I prepare something for everyone all at once so we can sit down and eat together, but that is VERY rare.
What I am trying to get at .. is…It dawned on me the other day… Our family still hangs out around a table together .. or in a circle on the floor… all at once…..Usually right before bed.
What we do is….. We sit around and play a few quick rounds of Uno, or Old Maid, or Banana Grams …
I didn’t say “Hey, since we can’t eat together, lets play games instead” It just started happening. .. The kids get games as gifts or whatever ..We keep a pile under a side table in our family room … and someone suggest we play.. and we all join in…Simple as that ..
No.. We don’t do this every night. Maybe ..a few nights a week…
But ..It is so fun… We laugh a lot…!!!!!… And, we also learned that someone always has to strategically sit inBETWEEN Bradley and William so they don’t argue over cheating or tease the person who has the old maid. etc…
It works for us…
I am glad that we do that because it sort of replaces that “sitting to eat as a family” thing. And it might make you all feel better that… for other people… things don’t always have to be a certain way ..
“Think outside the box”…Or in our case, the “outside of the box” sort of just happened on it’s own…
I love your honesty! You make the (very familiar) all too frequent “crazy schedule staggered dinner” feel normal. You’re right, It’s the quality time spent not the guilt that matters. ❤️