Family Meal Times

I was reading my favorite Blog this morning and after reading through some of the comments (something that I NEVER do) my brain was whirling.

Family meal times....what do yours look like?  Our meal times is something we have tried really hard to make a priority.  But I must admit, it is something that we have battled with from time to time.  There were many times we could have won the award for the most chaotic or most spills in one sitting.  I'm sure some people looking in our windows may have wondered what strange circus act they were viewing.

Our first struggles started when we first brought home our bundle of joy.  It never ever mattered what I did when I sat down to eat a meal with Phil the baby would start crying and need to be nursed.  Seeing that we have four children, there was a point in my life where I questioned whether or not we would ever have time to sit all together and eat in peace and quiet.

Then the babies began to grow into toddlers.  If your toddlers were anything like mine, they would eat (most of the time everything ended up on the floor or the seat of their high chair) and after they shoved their face full of three or four bites of everything the challenge to keep them seated became the focus of Phil or I or both of us.

There were many many nights I questioned if we would ever have a "normal" meal time.

Just when Hayley and Dylan were finally starting to get our family meal time rules (everyone sits until everyone is finished, you take your plates to the sink when finished, help clean up the kitchen before going to play, etc etc) Natalie was in the toddler I'm going to climb out of my high chair phase and Nathan, well Nathan was a screaming mess.  (Nathan didn't sleep more than 20 minutes at a time for his first year and a half of life.)

He did know how to fall asleep for his birthday cake, though.

Here we are several years later (Nathan is now 6.) And I can finally say that we have to still fight to make meal times a priority.  We now have sport practice schedules, jobs, church activities, you name it we probably have it going on.

But do you know what?  Sometimes you have to get creative, but there is NOTHING that can replace the conversations and family bonding that can take place around the dinner table.  We talk about what happened in the course of the day, we share our highs and our lows, there's laughter and sometimes tears.  And even still we have the spills and the food all over the floor.

I share all of this to encourage you, no matter what stage in life you are at.  Make meal time a priority.  You certainly will be glad you have!

~Misti~