Jenny Rosenstrach, author of Dinner: A Love Story and the blog of the same name, summed up the last few years of her writing on the family dinner in such a funny, wise, helpful, and entertaining post last week. She laid out her 50 rules for dinner, and then her husband did the same, starting with: "When making pasta, be sure to salt the water." Want to see all of their rules for dinner? What would your rules for dinner be? 

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My sister-in-law is a genius, one of those mothers who always knows how to have a good time while maintaining decent parenting technique. She started "F Friday." The children think the "F" stands for "fun." Their parents know it stands for the chance to slack off, not worry about making dinner, and hang with their friends. This is how it works.

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Kids know how to party! Check out the latest festive celebrations from the Apartment Therapy's Family channel, which posts kids' parties every day. We'll be bringing you a roundup of these inspiring parties every week.

• The Gaines Brothers' Vintage Carnival Party
  
• Laelia's Pink Ombre Party
  
• Bird's Easter Bunny Party
  
• Ethan's School Bus Party
  
• Logan's Sock Monkey Party

Our first house, a perfect 1927 bungalow, had an enormous yard, easily twice the area of the house. "We love the outdoors," we said to ourselves, envisioning croquet parties on the lawn, along with more athletic pursuits. And picnics! We would have picnics. As it happens, we do love the outdoors, but the maintenance? Not so much. The lawn overwhelmed us. Even the minimal upkeep of the mower was challenging. Our next house was twice as large, with less than half the lawn.  More

There’s something exciting about dessert in our house — shocking, even. Dessert rarely appears at the table, even though we have no specific rules about sweets. Every now and then one of the children will make a request — usually cookies, a love they inherited from their dad — or I'll feel nostalgic for something like cobbler, vinegar pie, or homemade Magic Shell over ice cream. Dessert is not a required course and we definitely don’t need it to survive. However, because my husband and I come from different cultures (I am all South Carolina, while he is half Serbian and half French) he’s been known to claim his Gallic heritage as the reason he must have dessert. But he comes by his love of dessert honestly...

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Kids know how to party! Check out the latest festive celebrations from the Apartment Therapy's Family channel, which posts kids' parties every day. We'll be bringing you a roundup of these inspiring parties every week.

Like every large family, the faces around our holiday table have changed over the years. Faces we loved are gone, and there are new faces that bring us joy. In the last few years, our table has changed a lot, and I'm finally ready to be more organized about it, which is not my strong suit, but you have to grow up some time, right? Easter dinner will be in my dining room — and kitchen, and living room — this year and I'm ready, more or less, thanks to the help of plenty of loved ones. (Okay, I'm not really ready, but I've been eating plenty of Jordan almonds and making lists!)

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Sharpen your pencil—it’s time for New Parent Math!

New Parent + Baby = Stress

Stress + Sugar = Less Stress

I can’t think of a time when I needed sweets more than during my son’s infancy. I mean, c’mon, there’s actual science that shows eating sugar can reduce stress. But then consider this equation...

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My children have plenty of things. When I travel without the boys, instead of bringing back t-shirts (they have hundreds) or snow globes (one is more than enough), I like to share the experience with them, often by cooking something new I enjoyed away from home. When we vacation as a family, we often return with new favorites to add to our regular menu. Here's how that plays out in our home:

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Dinner parties are one of life’s great pleasures: the preparation and planning, the first pop of a cork, the mutual enjoyment of new dishes and old favorites, and the conversation around the table that can last into the wee hours. But what if every night is a dinner party and you have to keep it simple? More often than not, we have extra people around our table, usually aunts, uncles, or grandparents, but we’re happy to welcome friends, as long as they don’t mind eating with children. The meals are simple, served family style, often including recipes from my childhood, and the conversation stays clean. (Little pitchers have big ears and all that.)

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