I know that, at not even 3 years old, my daughter is young and there's a lot that I shouldn't start stressing about until later on, but I already worry about what kind of school she should attend, what her behavior will be like as a teen, and whether sneaking vegetables into her food will cause life-long resentment. I also worry about the fact that we rarely ever have family mealtime. I hear all the time about the importance of family mealtime to a child's well-being. Studies show that teens who eat with the family 3-4x a week are less like to drink, do drugs, develope eating disorders or suffer from depression or suicidal thoughts. They're more likely than their non-familytime peers to maintain good grades, have strong friendships and delay sex. So, I suffer with the guilt of worrying whether letting my daughter eat in the living room is going to turn her into a teenaged boozy, druggy delinquent. It's not that I don't like family mealtimes, my family ate dinner together every night. It's just that with her age and my husband's unpredictable work schedule, it's hard to get everyone together at a decent time. I typically feed her earlier in the evening, then I cook myself something, and my husband eats whenever he feels like it.
Plenty of families have the same predicament. So how do you implement family mealtimes when everyone's schedule is so whack-ado? ... I don't know. That's why I'm asking you. I guess I could feed Alex a little later and eat with her at the table. It's not quite "family time", but it's 2/3 of it. Maybe I could bring the dog in too...
Another problem with family mealtime in our house, is that we all have different diets. I've tried everything to figure this one out. When I was doing my weightloss challenges with my group, the biggest obstacle that a lot of the women had in eating right, was that their husbands weren't onboard with the idea, so they were forced to cook to their husband's preference, rather than their own. I told them that my rule was, "If you don't want to eat what I cook, then you can provide for yourself." Apparently, that doesn't work for everyone. I guess a lot of husbands are scarier than mine. It also only worked in my house for a little while. I still had to make a separate meal for Alex, because even if she could cook for herself, I don't trust her with most cooking utensils, and her meals would consist of fruit snacks and juice boxes. And I quickly found out that Nate can rack up quite the fast food bill. From a monetary standpoint, it wasn't my best policy. Fortunately, he's now trying to eat a little healthier, and even though he's on a pretty strict diet, it's done in a way that I can find a compromise. I cook for him, and then tweak the food a little to suit my lifestyle. For example, last night, he was on a "no carb" day, so he made ribeye steaks. Ribeye is a really fatty cut of meat, so instead of eating a whole steak, I cut a few slices off of one of his (Yes, I just said one of his. He ate two.) and made a ribeye salad for myself. Then, I didn't have to cook two separate dinners.
Since we cooked one dinner together last night, my husband and I were actually able to eat at the same time. Normally, Nate always eats at the dining room table, only by himself. By the time I eat dinner, Alex is usually done with her's and wants me to eat in the living room, while she watches her evening movie. Last night, however, she seemed to be content with what she was doing, so I set the table for the both of us. No sooner had we sat down, then Alex came into the dining room to see what was going on. Instead of whining for me to go join her on the couch, she went back to the living room, came back her plate of peanut butter toast, set it on the table, climbed up into a chair and proceeded to eat dinner with us. I think it was our first family dinner that didn't take place in a restaurant. And it was nice. Maybe instead of worrying about bringing family mealtime to my family, my family will bring mealtime to me.
