Like a lot of people I know, our family sits down to have family dinner around our dining table every night, well... with very few exceptions (movie/pizza night or if I am driving to pick up/drop off kids). It's not something we've always done as a family, but it's a great tradition, one that all the experts agree is an important bonding time for children that helps them in many areas of life.
I don't like it.
It's stressful and it's a ton of extra work.
Tonight I didn't feel like setting the table. I didn't want to make small talk that turned into a battle of who was right about whatever insignificant thing someone felt like arguing about. I didn't want to pretend to be interested in the newest video game character -- whose name I can't pronounce. I didn't want to remind the boys to stop (for 1,000th time) trying to correct the little kids.
I didn't want to do it.
So, I didn't.
We ate around the kitchen counter.
We prayed together and then I let kids come and go as they pleased. I set out a stack of paper plates and a pile of silverware. People came, they ate, they left.
I didn't like it either.
Oh well! :) It's no surprise the really good and important family things we need to do in life are hard to achieve. I will probably be proud that I was able to provide the 'family dinner time' stability for our family once everyone is grown up. Haha. So tomorrow night we will have dinner at the dining table like usual. But I think we are going to change the dynamic of it. No more "how's was your day?" random questions. I am going to do this:
http://www.howdoesshe.com/christmas-present-to-our-readers
With some of my own questions and my faves from here:
http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/150-family-dinner-discussion-topics
And it's going to be fun!!! Who knows, maybe someday soon I will look forward to dinner time. :)
1 comment:
Sounds like a great way to shake things up and after a little while of doing that, maybe you could have your kids write some questions to go in the jar?
We have dinnertime here too around the table and the rule is that no one eats until everything is on the table. I don't get up to get things after we pray. If they need to get a fork because they just have a spoon, they do it. If they forgot they want ketchup on something, they get it. If a younger kid spills water, an older kid runs to get a towel (they're faster anyway...) This makes dinnertime much more pleasant for me.
Keep us updated on how the questions work out! =)
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