<p>We had the same problem with schedules with late work hours and crazy hours for ECs and came up with spending pre-bedtime together every night. We never formalized it or anything, it just sort of evolved…every night I put some cookies in the oven and pull out the milk and we just relax together for a while. Some nights it might be very late…S had some away games 90 minutes away and the varsity bus would pull in at 11 pm, and some nights he would be very late putting the school paper together, etc…but we found it worked for us. Some nights S#3 would make a joke of tucking H and I into bed before he went to finish his never-ending homework (and facebooking, etc.).</p>
<p>I’m really going to miss our late-nights as last S goes off to college this fall</p>
<p>We did once a week big-deal Sunday breakfast as often as possible. We still do, for that matter. It was a great time and a lot of fun to make waffles together.</p>
<p>Family meals are very important to us. Heck, food is very important to us. I leave every morning around 6 am, so breakfast is out. I get home after 7:30pm. We usually have dinner around then when our girls don’t have ballet. On weekends we eat together most of the time. Our favorite past time is to go out to dinner together. Our kids would turn down their own social function if we are going to some great restaurant. H is also a great cook, so eating at home is also a great pleasure for us. Our girls also like to invite their friends over to try Dad’s cooking.</p>
<p>We have “family dinner” as often as we can, but DH works a lot of evenings so it might just consist of a smaller “family”. Breakfast - sometimes on the weekends - actually I’d call it “brunch”. During the week we all leave at different times in the morning and all enjoy our own quiet morning routine…</p>
<p>If you can’t manage a meal together during the day, I suggest popping a big bowl of popcorn late at night and I’ll bet everyone will gather round for “family snack”!</p>
<p>We have always had family dinners most nights of the week. Both dh and I grew up with them, we waited for Dads to come home and they often worked late.</p>
<p>My absolute favorite family dinners though were the ones we had when my husband was in graduate school at Caltech. We had an eating group that met five nights a week, it was a really nice group of biology graduate students, a few interlopers from other departments and assorted girl friends. Great conversation and fantastic food.</p>
<p>We had dinner together most nights when I was growing up. I remember going around the table and saying what everyone did that day. </p>
<p>I also remember accidentally setting 5 places instead of 4 for the first few weeks after my brother moved out. (He’s quite a bit older than me and left when I was still pretty young.)</p>
<p>Now that we’re older, and I’m away at college, the family dinners have slowed down somewhat. But there are still some nights when I’m home and my sister isn’t busy that we do sit down and have dinner together.</p>
Breakfast - sometimes on the weekends - actually I’d call it “brunch”. During the week we all leave at different times in the morning and all enjoy our own quiet morning routine…</p>