Why is it such a struggle to get sims to eat as a family at the same time?

In my game play having a meal together is important , since they need to build in autonomous family relationships . I found it that breakfast is the easiest .Here is how I achieve that :

1. One sim is waking up early to prepare food.
2.  The sims which are yet sleeping have basic actions queued ( toilet , shower ) and when awake they join cooking 
3. I pay close attention to the cooking sim when the food is ready is drag it to the dining table.
4. One of the sims performs “call to meal “ action , after which I pause the game and delete any other actions from their queues .

for dinners I make sure that there is a ready meal in the fridge which I drag from it to the dinner table and have a sim perform “call to meal “ action , after which  I pause and make sure everyone gets this action first .

L

its more of managing them than anything else for me . 
the space at the dinner table is also important , make sure that there is room for all the sims to sit and eat .