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GoblinMatriarch's avatar

We don't actually always eat at the table, but we do eat together. So, like, if the kids are playing with trains on the living room floor, fuck it, let's pull up some of the nesting tables, put everyone's food on it, and eat together while we talk and play trains. I do not have the energy to chivvy everyone to the table every night, our table is a goddamn cluttered mess anyway, and in general, we are not together enough to serve everyone a beautifully plated meal at the same time anyway.

So we all tumble through the door sometime between 5.30-6.00, one of us stays in the kitchen while the other gets the kids ' shoes and coats off and gets them settled doing something, anything, and then the kitchen person brings out drinks and plates as they are ready. This works for us for now, when the first kid bedtime is 7pm, so we don't even always have an hour between arriving home and starting bedtime. Eventually, I hope we can all, like, sit and eat the same food together, maybe at a table that the kids help clear. But for now? This works for us, and I think it's pretty good.

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Louise's avatar

What worked for us was letting our ADHD 11 yr old be excused from the table as soon as he was done eating his main course, and allowing him to play then return to the table for dessert, so at least we started and finished together.

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