We always eat together unless one of us is away for business, etc.

We eat family dinner together every night. We sit down at the table, set aside our cell phones, turn off the TV and eat together. Granted, our daughter is young and this might be tougher when she gets older and has activities and homework. But I like to think that we're establishing good patterns early. And it's interesting what an almost three-year-old will tell you about their day at dinner.

Growing up, my parents and I ate nearly every meal together, and it's one of the things that my parents and I both miss, now that I've been out of the house for ten years. My partner and I don't currently eat together but I'm determined that our child will grow up with family dinners just like I did.

I'm with sdblondie, growing up my family ate nearly all meals together at the table. Now the bf and I tend to eat together but sitting in the living room in front of the computer and/or TV. I'd like to start having more official sit-down meals together, I think it opens up the door for lots of interesting and more meaningful conversation.

Growing up and well into my mid 20s, when I still lived at home with my parents and one sibling left (other sibling had already moved out), we had dinner together every night. It's one of the things I miss most now that I don't live at home: having dinner with more than one person.

We'd usually have dinner, conversate and watch the novela on and off and stay sitting at the table up to an hour after finishing the meal. Now dinner is between my husband and I. He usually likes to get up from the table as soon as he's done, which bums me out.

Every night, even with tweens!

We eat together every night, unless my husband is working late, in which case the kids and I eat together. Once a week my extended family also joins us for dinner. It's important.

There are only the two of us, but assuming we are both in town, we eat dinner together every night. We tend to eat either at our kitchen table or in the dining room, with cloth napkins and place mats and the works. It's our catch up time and we like the rhythm and reliability of that part of our day.

Since I've had my daughter, I've made it an important family activity for us to cook and eat together. Granted, this doesn't happen every night. But more nights than not, we sit down and eat together...even if it is just a quick dinner thrown together.

It is a nice tradition that bring us together each day in our busy, busy lives.

I grew up with family meals and have kept the habit with my husband, growing family, and now grown family. No one left the table until all were finished. I agree with the thought that it has to do with culture. Each family has their own culture as well and it's at the table that we can stop and actually share. The act of passing around food dishes is also a teaching lesson for young children. I now love that my granddaughter likes dinner time conversation.

My husband and I eat dinner together at our dining room table most nights. The exceptions are when one of us has other plans (friends, school, etc) and I hate to admit it - pizza and nacho nights - when we sit in front of the tv. Needless to say, the dining table nights are always so much nicer - table linens, candles and wow, actual conversation! :)

I grew up eating dinner with the family every night. My family does it now with two boys in their teens. Obviously there are some nights we all aren't there, but we make a point to get as many of us as we can around the table every night. We eat and laugh and catch up. When my mother-in-law is in town, our goal is to make her laugh until she pees her pants.
If you are not doing it, you need to start. You will be amazed what will be gained.

I did this with my family as did my husband with his and we have carried on this tradition from when it was only us two now two plus one toddler. Unless one of us is working late, we eat together as a family every night. I just couldn't imagine it any other way.

we eat together every night at the dining table. my son eats before us, since he needs to eat before 6pm which is the time my husband makes our dinner while i help my son eat his dinner.

Whenever we can, and the more the merrier. Tends to happen more on holiday - never less than 8 of us round the table. Even when my children were younger, we would eat together each evening. They invariably went to bed later than most of their peers, but for us it was normal.

used to eat with the family all the time growing up. Then my mom worked later and later so we kinda ate on our own or just with Dad.

Now that I live with my SO we used to have dinner every Friday night. So we knew we could make plans with family or friends or whatever every other night. But lately we havent been sitting down to dinner or even really making dinner. i definitely feel that disconnection. :(

We eat together, all ten of us, every single breakfast, and every single night and have guests over three or four nights a week... eating is far more than food in our house it's a way of life!!! I don't know how it came to be because neither my husband or I grew up in a home with family meals but our kids know no other way!!! I love it!!!

Growing up, we ate dinner as a family every night, with a few rare exceptions. Now, my BF and I hardly ever eat together, since we work opposite shifts. We try to go for breakfast a couple times a week and we make an extra effort on weekends, but still. Night shifts ruin family dinners.

When I was growing up my family ate together at every meal. Now my husband and only really eat together once a day. :(

My husband and I eat together every night. Usually while watching TV :)

I live on my own right now, so am a pretty frequent desk-eater.

Growing up my family ALWAYS sat down together - it was a rare night that we didn't, even if it was just for pizza or grilled cheese. I think part of it was that we weren't (and still aren't!) allowed food outside of the kitchen and dining room!

My husband and I grew up in families that ate together every night.

We not only eat dinner together, sitting at the table (no TV, no computers, no cell phones, etc), we also eat breakfast together -- at the table.

We try - it's not always easy because my husband and I both work full-time, we have two young kids, and my husband is also in evening law school. But we try! I find that everyone is happier when we eat dinner together. My three-year-old is in a very picky eating stage, so it's often tough to get her to eat what I've cooked, but I'm trying!! My seven-year-old is one of the most adventurous eaters I've ever met, all ages included.

I almost always eat alone.

I really love to cook. I get really excited about planning meals, and I try my best to make the plates look "restaurant-esque". Even though we barely have a table (our tiny apartment just has room for a small Ikea kitchen island), I collect placemats and plates and napkins and I try to set a nice place to eat.

By contrast, my boyfriend would be happy eating (microwaved!) frozen pizza every night. So even though I'd prefer to sit down at a nicely set table, the effort is mostly lost on him which is pretty discouraging. I'm also usually pulling him away from work or a video game so he tends to inhale the food and run back to his desk.

Lately I just make the plates and sit down in front of the tv.

My parents have Sunday dinner every week and it was expected you be there. In my 20s I resented it. In my thirties, I've grown to appreciate it very much.

My SO and I try to cook dinner together and sit down to eat at the dining room table with the TV off(that's a rule) but music in the background. Both making and eating dinner is our time to talk and spend some quality time together.

Growing up, though my parents tried to have family meals regularly, we were nearly always too busy (i.e., both parents really needed to continue work in the evenings, I would be doing homework and preferred to read - we were home and all ate the same thing, but not together at the table except for special meals). When my fiance and I first moved in together, we didn't actually have a table (nor did we have room for one) so we ate on the couch, and we tended to either read or watch TV.

This past year, though, we've got a table, and for most of the summer we were able to eat on our balcony, and we really got into the habit of eating at the table. I'm definitely finding that with both us insanely busy with grad school and work, making a point of eating together (even if it's at 10:30 pm, which is at least once a week) is both a needed break from the day and time for us to just focus on each other. It's a habit we plan to keep.

Even on the busy days when both my husband and I get home late, we warm up our individual plates of leftovers and sit down together. We live in Arizona and lately the weather has finally gotten cool enough to allow us our supper out on the patio. It transforms otherwise plain-looking leftovers into a romantic date.

Family dinners are a must with us! Right now the older two kids are at college, so it's just the youngest, hubs, and me at the dinner table. I love summers, because all of us are home, and dinner can take a couple of hours just because of the conversation and the fact that 4/5 of us don't have to get up early and go to work the next day.

I think family dinners are the best time to teach kids your family values through the conversation, the background music, and the community created at the table.

I regret to say that my husband and I just eat in front of the tv now, but we always eat together! We both grew up eating dinner with our families at the kitchen or dining-room tables, so I'm not sure what happened...When the kids come our way, though, I will certainly make an effort for us to sit down together to eat dinner (at least). So many important things are learned at the dinner table! E.g.: "please" and "thank you", the art of conversation, appropriate/healthy eating pace, portion control, sharing of food and thoughts & feelings, blessing/prayer in some families...gosh this really is a great research topic!

we eat dinner together at the table every night we are home for dinner. I feel that is an important ritual that we've moved away from.