The author has dinner with her husband and kids every night.
Courtesy of Kristina Wright
From the time my sons were old enough to sit in a high chair and eat mashed sweet potatoes, our family of four ate dinner together. For a long time, that meant my husband and I shifted our schedules and ate much earlier than we ever had before kids. There were years when dinner happened at what felt like the middle of the afternoon, simply because that was the window between naps, bedtime routines, and toddler meltdowns.At the time, it felt like one of those ordinary parenting decisions you make without thinking much about the long game. We ate together because that's what worked for us. It's not that I loved eating at 5 p.m., but I never liked the idea of eating at separate times like some of my friends with kids did. Dragging out the whole process of cooking, serving, and cleaning up — twice — just didn't appeal to me.Family dinner took on a much deeper meaningWhat started as a practical routine gradually became the one structured time in our day when we were all together in the same place for a little while. What I didn't realize when my boys were still in high chairs was how much more important dinner time would become once they were teenagers.My sons are now 16 and 14, and these days it often feels as though everyone in our family is moving in a different direction. Between school, extracurricular activities, plans with friends, homework, and part-time jobs, our schedules rarely line up naturally. On the weekends, there are mornings when someone leaves the house before another person is awake and evenings when everyone walks through the front door at different times.As children get older, you spend years preparing them for independence. Then one day, you look around and realize they've become independent enough that family time no longer just happens on its own. For us, family dinner has become that protected space.
