Lowering the bar on family meals

I know that I put a lot of pressure on myself to have my family eat together. I meal plan, I leave work at strategic times to try and avoid traffic to get dinner on the table on time, and I review the week's activities to see where conflicts arise.

I want us to eat together. It is my reward for a long day of work to spend time with the two guys I love the most in this world. I love it when we are connecting over silly stories from the day or talking through future plans or simply catching up.

There have been tons of studies touting the benefits of eating together as a family. And I get that. But it is still a lot of pressure. So it is nice to see that we can all lower the bar when it comes to family meals.

While there are a lot of important tips on that link, the one that stood out to me the most was this one: To get the benefits of family meals, you really just need two people twice a week. That is totally doable.

Granted, I will still try to get us to eat together as often as possible, but now all those times when it is just my son and I at breakfast or my husband and son together at weekend lunch, I know that we are still getting all the connectivity and positive vibes from each other that we need.

What is your favorite meal to eat together as a family? Tell me in the comments.