Recently, Huffington Post blogger, Grace R. Freedman, PhD, wrote Family Dinner: Myth or Reality. As per the standard, the comments turn towards how busy, how unbelievably difficult and how awful, coming together as a family is to accomplish.
I beg to differ. We are all busy. We all have job(s), school, extra curricular activities, yadda yadda; what does it say when we are so busy with our lives, that we can't stop to eat?
The idea of a family meal needs to be redefined. Throw away the visions of pot roast and mashed potatoes, homemade pie and coffee. Puleeze. That is a great Sunday dinner (or another day if you have the day off). We are supposed to be eating a light meal for dinner anyway, so jump on that and have something simple! It is not the food that is important, it is the actual sitting down and talking.
Hey, I have teenagers, I know that often they are glowering, not speaking. Not a problem! They can glower, while you talk to someone else at the table. Trust me, it kills the cranky mood when you don't feed the negative energy.
Being a family should be the most important thing that there is. Your job is of course a must, but it is something you DO so you can come home and have a life with your family. All roads lead back to the family. Back to the family table.
Comments
June 7, 2011
I totally agree. It was a rule in our house that we all sit down to dinner together every night to stay connected (unless someone had another dinner invite) even if that meant dinner at 9pm in order to have everyone in attendance. We're a pretty close-knit family now.