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Growing up, my parents firmly believed in the family dinner. Until I left for college, my parents, sister and I had dinner together at least 5 nights a week (TV and telephone turned off), and then we'd go over to my grandma's house on Sundays for her excellent cooking. When my mom returned to work when I was in high school, I became responsible for cooking dinners and grocery shopping, and I felt entitled to the family dinners, if only so everyone could see how hard I worked! (okay, I was a bit self-absorbed as a teen). My dad was great for dinner-time conversation - we always had something interesting to talk about. When I lived at home during grad school, it was just my parents and I, and every person for themselves - my 24/7 schedule and dad's graveyard shift made it hard to get everyone together. Now that I live alone, I miss that togetherness - spending time as a family, and having someone to cook for (food that you cook for yourself just doesn't seem to taste as good).

When I was a very young child it was a rule that we had to eat dinner together at the table. My brothers complained, but I know they secretly loved it. They'd have these unspoken competitions as to who could get me to laugh the hardest at the dinner table. I also remember hiding vegetables in a wadded up napkin in the window sill, but they were the gross frozen/boiled kind, which is another story entirely ...

Then my oldest brother, who is eight years older then me, joined the military and after he left, we stopped doing family dinners. I remember being really sad about that happening and I also remember thinking that my parents must have liked my oldest brother more than me and my other brother because they didn't keep the tradition going for our sake.

For the rest of my time with my family, we all ate whenever we wanted to; in our rooms, in our bed, in front of the T.V., at midnight, whatever. I hated that it was like that and I've already decided that if I ever have children, eating dinner together will be a priority. I think it's just as important as teaching kids proper nutrition. Do I think that eating together will teach them proper nutrition? Not necessarily, but it will keep us communicating.

My brother and I were expected to be present for family dinners from birth till we moved out. When school activities kept us from dinner with the family, my mother mortified me by bringing me a plate of homemade dinner at school while everybody else's mom brought them McDonald's. (Yes, I am ashamed now of how I felt then!)

For my husband and me, making a point of having "family dinner" matters. Yes, we eat together every night, but the nights we make a point of sitting down at the dining table together, rather than having dinner on the couch and watching tv, definitely make us more connected. When we have children I expect we will make even more of an effort at this than we do now.

Family dinners were really important for us. It was just how we grew up, no questions about it. Even when I was home from college, my parents would ask if I'd be home for dinner. Not because they were forcing me into a curfew, they just wanted to spend some time with me. Thats when we all caught up with each other, talked about the day. So many of our goofy antics and stories happened, too. Both of my parents finished their Master's degrees when I was in elementary school, so it was tough. But even if we ate crappy or part-instant food, we'd always sit down together to eat. No eating in front of the TV or going to your own room. I think that's what my parents valued most. It's also a way to show appreciation to my mom for cooking. Then we all pitch in to help clean up and do dishes.

have very strong opinions about family dinners. We were never allowed to eat outside of the kitchen or the dining room almost without exception. Exceptions being if we had a party and chafing dishes were set up in the bar recreation area or if you were sick someone brought you something on a tray but that was it.
I dislike with prejudice people who let their kids (my sister is one of these people) eat all over the god damned house. It makes my blood boil.
No one wants to clean up crumbs and food stains from furniture and floors. I blame this on the parents themselves. Family dinners teach children many things. Manners, social interaction, discipline and they give a sense of belonging that is as old as man. Movies about prehistoric man always revolved around a cooking/eating ritual of some kind.

I do much of the entertaining and large family/holiday meals in our family.
I enjoy entertaining and planning for big dinners and holidays.
To me it means something. There alternative to me is sad.
I hate to say it but some parents are lazy. Their kids are going to be too.

I was raised with the notion of dinner together every night if possible (my dad was a firefighter) but always at the table for whoever was at home. Today, my husband and I both work retail, so we cross paths often. A lot of times we have to rely on takeout (boo) as one of us has just eaten at work and the other is starving. We've developed a tradition of making Sunday (when we're both off) our "cooking adventure" day, where we try something new and off the wall, and we make it together. Right now in our careers, it's quality over quantity!

My mom insisted on our family sitting down to dinner together, every night that was humanly possible. Now that I'm on my own with a little it of perspective, I appreciate it. Dinners kept us communicating, even when my brother and I were surly teenagers and didn't have much to say. I'm also grateful because those meals primed me to become the food snob I am today. My mom wasn't much of a locavore, but everything was freshly prepared from scratch; no boxes or mixes were ever found in our household. I think one time she tried to serve us Hamburger Helper as a joke; we recoiled in horror and refused to eat. Henceforth, that meal was brought up as a reminder of what a good mom she was. When I have my own kids, I fully plan to continue the tradition by cooking good meals that we will enjoy as a family.

My family always sat down to dinner while growing up. If we were ever allowed to eat in front of the TV or in our rooms it was some sort of a treat for us. Now my family consists of myself, my husband and our 3 yr old. We always eat at the table every night of the week, unless we go out and that is rare. Often this is my husbands best one on one interaction of the day with her and he loves it.

My husband and I are on opposite work schedules (me -- days; him -- nights) so dinnertime is really about the only time we have to sit down, relax, and cath up with one another as a family. Admittedly, there are occasions when we opt to drag TV trays into the family room and watch AFV or some other fun family show that gets us laughing, but the majority of the time I make it a point to turn off all the phones, TVs and other distractions and have us sit together at the kitchen table. The kids are only little once; and before they get too busy to slow down for a minute and spend time with their folks, I want to inculcate this habit (tradition, routine...) into them -- that is, quality, daily family time -- just us -- to reconnect. Recently, I began instituting a "fancy dinner night." Every now and then I'll serve dinner in our dining room, complete with candles and table cloth and juice served in "fancy glasses," even if all we're eating is the regular pasta with meatballs or grilled chicken. For some reason this small change made our dinnertime together even more special. I cherish these moments, and I know one day when it's just the hubby and I, we'll look back and remember fondly the time we spent all together at the kitchen (or dining room) table.

I also grew up with family dinners, and also feel that they're important--but unlike the lucky several whose families seemed to have the time and/or money to always home-cook those family meals from scratch, I have no problem with the meals not being 100% homemade.

The important part is being with family, not the mother or father of the household spending hours in the kitchen (whether it be every night or on the weekend to cook for an entire week). We were just as happy when we are all eating McDonald's around the table as when Mom cooked us a full meal--it was the company that counted, and I don't think we turned out any worse for the times we did that (though apparently people like @JerzeeTomato would disagree).

With a now-typical two-working-parent household with multiple children in multiple extracurriculars (which do tend to occur on weekends as well as after school), I don't feel it's realistic to expect that *everyone* can take the time to cook ahead for the entire week. If you have the time, the money, and the ability to cook a family dinner every night, that is certainly something admirable and worth doing, but if you have to skip a few nights or if it is usually not something homemade, I don't see that people should be judged for that. Yes, it would be nicer for everyone to be fortunate enough to have what I had growing up (a mother who was an excellent cook and did have the time to make dinner most, but not all, of the time), but I don't actually feel it's reasonable to expect everyone else to live the way I do.

I also can't see how parents who might have to work two jobs just to support their families (I know people whose families are in this situation) are lazy, or how their children are lazy if they have to arrange their own transportation to and from school, as well as prepare their own meals, but maybe the family meals we had that weren't home-cooked have just not made me as virtuous a person as @JerzeeTomato is.

I too grew up in a family where meals were eaten together- not just supper but also breakfast! I never felt "forced' to eat with my family, and this wasn't a rule; it simply was.
My mom, who taught and was usually home when we got home from school, did all of the weekday cooking. My dad made pasta Saturday and Sunday nights. But even better, during the summer each of us four kids got to be in charge of supper one day a week. We'd get cookbooks from the library, plan the menu, put ingredients on the shopping list, cook, and clean up. I credit my pretty spectacular cooking ability to my mom's willingness to supervise this chaotic experiment, her reassuring me that gnocchi were indeed meant to be chewy and eggplant was a kinda slimy vegetable, her determination to make sure that at age 8 or 9 I had an understanding that food cost money and time and didn't magically appear.

Growing up, we always ate dinner together. This made our dinner schedule a little more...European than other American families, as we usually ate dinner between eight and nine pm. My dad ran his own business, and lots of times he wouldn't be home before eight, so that was when we ate. If he couldn't come home at all, we'd order out and take it up to his office and all eat together (an option that, I realize, not all families have). You could invite your friends if you wanted, but the only time kids were excused from dinner was if you were working past 9 pm. No TV, no phones, no books. By the time I was in high school, my mom was back at work, so we were all expected to pitch in and help make dinner out of sheer necessity, which was a blessing in and of itself. I'm so happy we had those family dinners together - I know not every family has the option due to scheduling or other issues, but I think it has a lot to do with why my sisters and I are so close to each other and to our parents, years after everyone's left the nest. It was a hassle, but for us, totally worth it.

Rock on Jerz