Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Waiting-For-Him Dinner

Do you and your significant other eat dinner together?  I think we all know it's supposed to be a good thing and quality time, especially with kids yada yada, but it can be tough.

Kevin works a lot later than I do--I'm home by 6:30 p.m., and he gets home about 3 hours later. Bummer.  So what to do about dinner?  Do I starve myself and wait for him, only to greet him as he walks through the door by throwing food in the general direction of his mouth with one hand and using the other to stuff my own mouth frantically yelling "Let's eat! Let's eat! NOW!!!"?  Or do I go ahead and eat by myself, and then bear his sad eyes that say "Oh, you ate without me? Oh, that's nice that you got to eat. I didn't. Wait did you say something? I can't tell because my stomach is grumbling so loudly."?

I've come to a kind of "compromise", which is decidedly not good for me.  I have a mini-dinner before he gets home.  For example, sometimes I'll pick up some snacks from the little Italian cured meats/cheese place around the corner, and pour myself a cocktail or a glass of wine.  Behold my mid-evening mini-dinner.

Vodka cocktail with sparkling pomegranate juice, cooked Parma ham, Taleggio cheese, and prosciutto puffs.  I like to have variety.

As you can probably tell, NOT SO HEALTHY.  While I don't polish off all of the above, I do have enough that more than fulfills my sodium RDA--and probably the fat RDA also. So sometimes my whole mini-dinner concept works against me and, feeling guilty, I forego eating dinner with Kevin anyway or just have a smidgen. 

Sadly, even when Kevin and I do eat dinner together at home, we have a really bad (but from what I understand, common to many of us) habit of eating dinner on the couch in front of the TV.  We have a full-fledged dining table, but we don't even eat there.  Oh what a sad commentary on the dynamics of modern couples in a TV and work-driven world.

On the other hand, after such a long day for Kevin, I think the last thing he wants to do is come home and immediately use his brain to make small talk with me.  I don't mind waiting an hour or so for him to decompress before ushering in "quality time". That or I just want to watch my trashy TV in peace. 

What kind of dinner routine do you have?

9 comments:

  1. We do dinner together but on the couch in front of the TV, as well. We make small talk on hikes or at the gym, so I don't feel bad that we're missing out on that "quality time" or anything. And admittedly, I think dinner at the table is kind of awkward. I know that's horrible, but ... me likey TV.

    Your pre-dinner dinner is my kind of dinner. I usually like to add grilled veggies like asparagus, eggplant, mushrooms, red peppers, zucchini to that above pre-dinner meal to make it a more legit (but equally fatty, salty) meal. I mean, if you throw some vitamins and fiber in there you can feel... less guilty? Yeah? :)

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  2. We eat dinner together too, and in front of the tv. We don't have a dining table, but we do have a "breakfast table" in the kitchen. But, you can't see the tv from there. :) Luckily, we both get home earlier enough that this can happen. Sean gets home before I do, and he waits for me, but the latest I get home is usually 7:30.

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  3. a three hour difference is rough. I don't think I could wait that long before eating :P Sak gets home sometimes an hour later than i, and sometimes vice versa. we have our go-to snacky-snacks that I try to keep on the healthy side though.

    we also eat in front of the tv. and not even on the couch. sometimes on the floor. :P

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  4. Our dining room table is our coffee table, in front of the tv. Dinner usually consists of take-out. Yup, we're real healthy.

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  5. We're very similar, except I'm usually the one who gets home later, and then I'm also the one who cooks dinner. So he has no choice but to wait for me, haha! Although sometimes I know he eats a granola bar or something as a snack. We also always eat in front of the TV, usually not until around 8:30 or 9pm (which is so bad for your metabolism), because we don't even own a dining table!

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  6. I totally empathize. Since my husband is a medical resident, he works crazy long hours. We're trying to eat dinner together every night, regardless of when he gets home. But sometimes that means I eat at 11 pm! Grr.

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  7. My hubs' work schedule is always changing, so there tend to be at least 2-3 days a week when we work opposite shifts (last night he didn't get home until 12:30am) on those nights I don't bother waiting for him and can't really muster the urge to cook (which is why I ate quacamole for dinner last night). When we are both home for dinner, we eat on the couch in front of the TV....mostly because our kitchen table seems to collect all of our clutter.

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  8. Husband always comes home later than I do, too, so I LOVE the idea/image of throwing food in the general vicinity of his head as he walks into the house. altho the pugs would probably get most of that.

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  9. Oh wow, you're a good wife that you even attempt to wait. My hubs deserves a wife like you- he makes dinner every night, sometimes I don't get home till 8 or 9 and he insists on waiting most nights. Eep.

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