The Work It, Mom! Blog
with Nataly
Hi, I am Nataly and I am the co-founder of Work It, Mom!
I write the daily Work It, Mom! Blog where I talk about issues affecting working moms, goings on in our Work It, Mom! community, new site features, updates,and contests. I also share my own juggle between work and family and love to see members jump in with comments. Come and visit often!
Nataly's profile on Work It, Mom!
Our family — probably like most families out there — lives according to a quick-paced, hectic schedule. We do try to find some time to just relax and hang out together on the weekends, but during the week it’s all go, go, go! And while I know we’d all like to do it, we haven’t figured out a way to all eat dinner together on weeknights.
This has been bugging me a lot. I love the idea of all of us hitting the pause button on our crazy schedules and catching up while eating together. I’ve also seen some research suggesting that eating dinner together as a family has a positive impact on kids as they grow up. This makes total sense to me. But alas, our schedules just don’t work out, yet, to have a family dinner during the week.
So about a week ago I decided that we we were going to make breakfast our special family meal for the day. (This was inspired, in part, by my own resolution to eat a full, healthy, warm breakfast every day — but more on that in a different post.) The family breakfast “rules” are fairly simple:
-We set the table and attempt, in some way, to make it pretty. (Don’t overestimate this, please — by “pretty” I mean, not piling on numerous cereal boxes.)
-We all sit down to eat and some parts of our meals overlap. I usually make breakfast so I might sit down a little after my daughter and husband, or my husband comes in later after taking a shower, but we all have to sit together for some bit of time.
-We use our nice silverware, which we usually save for company. And I recently found these wonderful glass coffee mugs which make the morning coffee with my husband just a little more special. (Our kiddo gets her milk in her “very special cup”, so we all have a treat.)
We’ve only followed this new tradition for a few days but I absolutely love it. Mornings used to be a collection of rushed things to do, and while they are still hectic, I really look forward to our breakfast together. For me is like an exhale before the insanity of the day kicks in. The two days when we could make our family breakfast work (I had to leave early once and my husband was on a trip the other) I found that I wasn’t in as good spirits when I got to work. I highly recommend that you try this with your family.
Do you eat breakfast or dinner together as a family?
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wow, i don’t know how you can sit down for breakfast. That’s amazing.
Sitting down for breakfast is hard because that means you have to wake up earlier to do that. You put so much effort in keeping your family healthy. Good for you.
vera babayeva | April 20th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Only on weekends. But we eat dinner together every night without fail. Of course, my husband and I are in the same profession, therefore having the same schedule. And my daughter is 2. Not hard yet.
My husband has to leave earlier than I do, so I get up early just to have my toast with my husband every morning. And I sit with my daughter while she eats her breakfast later. She and I both lose a little morning sleep so we can see more of Daddy, but it’s well worth it.
Meg | April 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Love the breakfast idea, Nataly. You colored outside the lines and found a routine that works for your family. Hurrah!
I think the key thing is to lock in a time, every day, when everyone in the family commits to spending time together (with few “excuses” and they’d better be “good”!). It could be over breakfast, homework, dinner… perhaps it’s carving out 20 minutes before the youngest family member’s bedtime where everyone gathers to read a story aloud, or talk about their day.
The most important thing is to put down our work, laundry and/or BlackBerry, remove distractions and make family time a true priority.
Jeannie | April 20th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I thought you were going to write about eating breakfast for dinner! (Which we do a lot, by the way, and love! You know, pancakes or eggs for dinner? Oh, so easy?)
Anyway, your idea is good too.
We eat dinner together as a family. Breakfast is usually the girls and their daddy, with me standing in the kitchen as close to the coffeemaker as possible, trying to fill my mug as the coffee is still brewing.
Shannon | April 20th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
My husband has a long commute to NY and arrives home after the kids have eaten. Making the kids wait for him was usually a disaster because they were so hungry and my husband felt rushed having to come right in and eat. So I make sure that I sit down with the kids and eat every night. Or most nights. I try hard not to serve them and do other things in the kitchen. We’ve incorporated some fun things into dinner, like telling our favorite parts of the day and my kids will often remind me if I’m not sitting down that I need to. Another thing I try to do is eat out sometimes. I know it’s expensive, but when we’re all out at a restaurant, attention is focused on our family, someone else is serving us so we have to sit down and relax.
Sharon | April 21st, 2009 at 7:31 am
I love it. We’re all about making ordinary things special, so I really hear you about using special cups and the nice silverware. It’s an easy way to make an occasion out of an everyday event.
Leah K | April 21st, 2009 at 9:09 pm
During the week - get what you can for breakfast -
grab fruit!
Dinner - I make personally each night -
I menu plan each week and it helps me with my dinners at night - hint: the crock pot is my best friend - her name is Thelma …
mamannw | April 23rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm