When Ava was young, we, like most parents, focused on feeding her first and foremost in the evenings, in that panickly hour in between work and bedtime. We cooked “adult” dinners separately for ourselves after she went to bed. But around the time she started preschool (or perhaps before – memory is already vague, sadly) my work life allowed me to be home in the afternoons more and we decided to try out family dinner around 6PM.

It was tough for sure to give up a few precious moments of peace and age-appropriate dinner conversations. Yet although these family dinners lasted all of 10 minutes with a restless and distracted preschooler, and although things didn’t get easier when a lovely baby (who is now restless preschooler) was added to the mix. But we’ve stuck with it through the years, and I now see how with every passing week, the kids spend less and less time falling out of their chairs and more time sharing the details of their lives with us.

The next step? Turning the table on family dinner and having the girls cook. I promise to clean up. No complaints.