A family meal is a grounding activity. The world is a busy place between school, social media, work, and community activities and commitments, and when your family sits down for just a few minutes to share food and unpack the day, it cements your relationships. If you are struggling to make family meals a priority in your busy home, read on for our tips to make it happen.

Get the invites out early

If you’re just starting or getting back to family meals, spread the word early and establish the day and time for family meals. When your children and spouse know about the plans in advance, they can coordinate work and study schedules and make it a priority. Setting a specific day for the meal – or a specific time, if you are lucky enough to eat together every day as a family – turns this event into a habit.

Start with Sunday dinner

There’s a reason that Sunday dinner is an age-old tradition: it’s a natural time to gather with loved ones as the new week begins. Sunday evening might be a good time to start eating together for your family. You can use this time to catch up and plan for the week, which will set a tone of support for the work ahead.

If hosting a Sunday dinner sounds like a huge burden to you, relieve some of that pressure by reminding yourself the dinner doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be a typical meal or even a few frozen pizzas. While Sunday dinner is a great chance to refuel with a healthy meal before a week of racing around and grabbing meals to go, you should incorporate the needs and preferences of your family and your schedule into whatever shape this meal takes.

Get the whole family involved

Family meals don’t need to rest on the shoulders of one parent. To make family dinner sustainable, delegate a job to everyone. Invite the children to cook with you, or rope in your spouse and use that time to catch up on what happened during the day. If your kids are old enough to plan and help shop for family dinner, ask them to participate in every stage of the event. Once the task of preparing the meal itself is shared, it will be easier to spend that time with your family and make it a peaceful, social meal.