DINNER TIME....THE TIME FOR DINNER

Dinner Time



Just the words "DINNER TIME" bring about so many emotions for a mom, especially for a mom raising six children in New York City.

Dinner Time is an ever changing time in our house. It is a time where a great deal of effort goes into so many different areas. Though the format which we share dinner time is ever changing,
there is ALWAYS dinner time.



What is dinner time..................the TIME for dinner



Here is where I must stand firm on the VALUES on what makes us a family on what is unwavering. WE MUST ALL JOIN TOGETHER AT A predesignated time which everyone
knows is going to happen every night.

Everyone in my house knows that we eat dinner early. This is an issue for some of the kids, one where I understood from them why we had to change our dinner time .When we started this school year in September we changed our dinner time to 5:30pm.

Last year we ate dinner at 4:45pm, in order to avoid the snacking rush which comes when the children arrive home from school. I thought that if I could get a good meal in to their bodies while they are super hungry then they can snack later.

I did get a good meal into their bodies and I still believe in this idea, however I compromised with my children. At 4:45pm the house was filled with playdates. I listened to several of the reasons why they did not want to have dinner at 4:45pm but the one that made most sense wasthey did not want to have dinner be a part of the time they spent with their friends.

I understood that it was unfair to my children to have their playdates all join our dinner table. I had a great deal of fun and so did the playdates. The friends of their friends for the most part enjoyed being part of a BIG FAMILY FULL OF KIDS dinner. Picture now if a sixth grader, third grader and fourth grader all had friends over my dinner table would be 10 people.

Set in a large dining room with platters of food to serve 10 people., NINE of those people
would be under the age of Fourteen.

One activity we would always do when friends joined us for dinner was everyone had to share something with everyone at the table, and the friends started. Sometimes we would pass a ketchup bottle as the microphone, who ever was holding the ketchup was allowed to talk and
it was passed around.

I hope that my children will remember their 4:45pm dinners last year and be proud of the
experiences we had with friends at the dinner table but times change, children get older and
you move dinner down to 5:30pm.