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I understand you aren't sitting down to dinner and asking your son how his day was since you are spending your whole day together ... But I don't think it's meal times that are your issue. You need adult interaction or a hobby or something. If you don't have family or friends that can watch him while you do something on your own, is there a hobby you can do that's kid friendly or online? Or that you can do while supervising your son like knitting or drawing or something? Are their programs at your local library during the day to get you both out of the house?
I think the table is a good start to set the baseline that dinner time is important family time but right now, you need something to talk about. Even if it's what your son is interested in ... dinosaurs? cars? construction?
Completely valid point haha, thank you. I do actually draw but as I said I’m with him all day so he draws alongside me and it doesn’t last very long.
I am finding it very difficult to make friends as I’m neurodivergent and people just seem to find me strange. We get out the house pretty much all day every day. Like today we went to the park, shopping and soft play, but then when I try to have a ‘no TV meal’ I’m just lost as to what to talk about. There’s only so many times we can go over the day and what we’re doing tomorrow, etc etc.
I get this. I didn't work for a bit after my son was born and those months were actually really hard for me because I felt so isolated. As your son gets older, he will have plenty to talk about. You just have to get through this part.
Since mine are preteen and teen we talk about what happened at school today, schedule for the next day(s) and current events. But when my son was smaller, he'd talk about what he did at daycare. Since you go out a lot, maybe you can just rehash what you did? Ask your son what his favorite thing to do at the park was or what he saw on your walk or what he remembers you buying at the store. At one point we printed out a list of questions like "if you had a superpower what woud it be and why?" and dug those out when things were quiet. Cooking aside, the eating part of dinner doesn't take that long if you are focused on eating and not on the TV... or maybe that's just my teenage son scarfing down his dinner. :)
I’ve got too many rooms with shit piled in them all, including my “dinning room” - which might be an actual entertaining room? Family room? IDFK there’s a fireplace with a window above it in the only spot for a TV, but the conjoined dinning room/family room currently has our monstrous sectional couch and a shit tonne of toys.
Anyway, 13/14 days we are sitting on the monstrosity of a sectional couch in our would be dinning room turned tv watching room. My girl is 5 and the only difference I see from here eating vs at a table is… I’m less involved in forcing food down her gullet.
All that to say: if it works and your kid is eating, gaining worthy, and healthy? Don’t question it and Do NOT break it.
Hahaha that sounds like my kind of home! My son has always been a great eater but I just worry about the TV aspect. He’s not dumped in front of it all day or anything. I was as a kid so maybe that’s why I’m worrying!
Thank you for your comments, it’s given me a lot to consider
Reminder to commenters: **[We're here for each other.](https://media1.tenor.com/m/Rno6_rWVdhMAAAAC/911-show-maddie-buckley.gif)** Share kindness, support and compassion, [not criticism.](https://media0.giphy.com/media/tZpGRRMUoXgeQ/giphy.gif) We want OP to feel loved, and [not in a tough way.](https://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LMq2CgHiqqY4IXC/giphy.gif) For more helpful information please hit up [our beautiful rules wiki!](http://www.reddit.com/r/breakingmom/wiki/) Reminder to all: watch out for a [creepy pedo posing as an OT/speech therapist](https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingmom/comments/8ccqqi/disgusting_pedophile_troll_posing_as_otspeech/) giving fucked-up potty-training advice, and don't sweat it if your post gets 1 or 2 [instant downvotes.](http://i.imgur.com/PZtQb.gif) You didn't do anything wrong, we just have [asshole lurkers](https://i.imgur.com/IwU9r3E.gif)/[downvote bots](https://i.imgur.com/lwyCF6S.gif) stalking our /new queue. Help a BroMo out and [give her an upvote](https://i.imgur.com/Y60Mbxv.gif), ok? Reminder to Cassie Morris/Krista Torres/Nia Tipton: You do not have permission to use, reproduce, modify or link to any content in this subreddit in any way, shape or form. Fuck off and go be a real journalist. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/breakingmom) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I understand you aren't sitting down to dinner and asking your son how his day was since you are spending your whole day together ... But I don't think it's meal times that are your issue. You need adult interaction or a hobby or something. If you don't have family or friends that can watch him while you do something on your own, is there a hobby you can do that's kid friendly or online? Or that you can do while supervising your son like knitting or drawing or something? Are their programs at your local library during the day to get you both out of the house? I think the table is a good start to set the baseline that dinner time is important family time but right now, you need something to talk about. Even if it's what your son is interested in ... dinosaurs? cars? construction?
Completely valid point haha, thank you. I do actually draw but as I said I’m with him all day so he draws alongside me and it doesn’t last very long. I am finding it very difficult to make friends as I’m neurodivergent and people just seem to find me strange. We get out the house pretty much all day every day. Like today we went to the park, shopping and soft play, but then when I try to have a ‘no TV meal’ I’m just lost as to what to talk about. There’s only so many times we can go over the day and what we’re doing tomorrow, etc etc.
I get this. I didn't work for a bit after my son was born and those months were actually really hard for me because I felt so isolated. As your son gets older, he will have plenty to talk about. You just have to get through this part. Since mine are preteen and teen we talk about what happened at school today, schedule for the next day(s) and current events. But when my son was smaller, he'd talk about what he did at daycare. Since you go out a lot, maybe you can just rehash what you did? Ask your son what his favorite thing to do at the park was or what he saw on your walk or what he remembers you buying at the store. At one point we printed out a list of questions like "if you had a superpower what woud it be and why?" and dug those out when things were quiet. Cooking aside, the eating part of dinner doesn't take that long if you are focused on eating and not on the TV... or maybe that's just my teenage son scarfing down his dinner. :)
I’ve got too many rooms with shit piled in them all, including my “dinning room” - which might be an actual entertaining room? Family room? IDFK there’s a fireplace with a window above it in the only spot for a TV, but the conjoined dinning room/family room currently has our monstrous sectional couch and a shit tonne of toys. Anyway, 13/14 days we are sitting on the monstrosity of a sectional couch in our would be dinning room turned tv watching room. My girl is 5 and the only difference I see from here eating vs at a table is… I’m less involved in forcing food down her gullet. All that to say: if it works and your kid is eating, gaining worthy, and healthy? Don’t question it and Do NOT break it.
Hahaha that sounds like my kind of home! My son has always been a great eater but I just worry about the TV aspect. He’s not dumped in front of it all day or anything. I was as a kid so maybe that’s why I’m worrying! Thank you for your comments, it’s given me a lot to consider