Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around me and my family and our tradition of Sunday dinners. I think back and remember my mother being in the kitchen and making something special every Sunday. Sometimes I would be in the kitchen with her and helping. Ultimately, she was teaching me to cook even then and teaching me about the kind of mother that I would eventually become. She was teaching me and my brother and sister that time around the table was special and that eating together as a family was important. My parents always made a big deal about being home on a Sunday and how Sunday was the day that we got ready to face a new week.
Before we had children, we had our military family over to celebrate Sunday dinners. Some weeks there would be 4 people and other weeks there would be 25 people. You just never knew. I always loved having people eating delicious food and having conversations and connecting in my home.
Now that we have children, we still do this and it is even more important to me now. Our tradition of Sunday dinner means something else to me now. My children are in the kitchen with me. Cooking with me. Learning from me. Just like I did from my own mother. It is a time where we do not have the usual constraints of a weekday and we can make slow cooked meals that fill our house with amazing smells. We have the time to bake our own bread and make a fancy cake for dessert.
Some weeks we do not have the luxury of time, but we still have a meal and we have it together. We set the table with real napkins and light candles and make it an event, even if there is a quick pasta or just a hamburger on the table. It is not about the food necessarily, but the time that we have to sit at the table as a family and talk. We get to teach them how to use their best manners and how to have a conversation. We get to hear their little take on the world. We teach them that being together as a family is something that needs to be a priority.
I thought that all families ate dinner together. I was shocked to go to a friend’s house for dinner to find dinner on the stove and a stack of plates next to it and no one eating the dinner together. I was shocked that we could go upstairs and eat our meal in the bedroom. It was then, years and years ago, that I silently thanked my parents. Thank you for making our family a priority. Thank you for making us talk to you. Thank you for showing us what good healthy food looks like. Thank you for making us feel special.
I understand that life is crazy. I really do. Some days, I barely can get it together enough make more than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner. But I really do my absolute best to eat together as a family every night. I know that is not everyone’s reality. So I challenge you this, make one night a week non-negotiable. It can be any day of the week, but you have to eat one home cooked meal and you need to eat it sitting at the dinner table together. No TV, no cell phones, just you and your family. If you need some recipe ideas that can be fast meals, or slow cooked ones, click on the pictures and it will take you to the recipe. I hope that you love the tradition as much as I do.
What is a tradition that you had as a child that has shaped your parenting?
Bree Hester
Bree is a food blogger and photographer based out of Carmichael, CA. She lives with her husband and 3 children. Her blog, Baked Bree, is a recipe blog for the home cook who wants to eat well and laugh often.
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