My favorite thing in our house is the kitchen table.
There’s one thing I am a stickler about. People who know me would say I’m a stickler for a lot, but in my defense, I’m a Virgo. It was locked in the stars for me to be this anal. I’ve recently loosened the reins on bed time, and Sundays bring a respite from making our beds. See how wild and crazy I am when I let down my hair? The one thing I continue to be a stickler about is meal time. I believe dinner time is family time.
The four of us sit at the dinner table together every single night. Bird and Deal set the table with placemats and cloth napkins. They pour the water. We pour the wine. Before we start eating we hold hands and share one thing we are thankful for from the day. We do this instead of saying grace. It’s our own way to honor and celebrate what graces us. The only rule is that we cannot say we are thankful for things. That means that I might be positively glowing from the $47 suede boots I got on clearance, but that glow is saved for dinner conversation, not our thank-yous. Truth be told, that glow would never be discussed at the table. None of my boys would care about my boots. I compensate for this by buying more boots. But I digress…
What I’m saying here is that meal time is sacred. This is when we chat about our days or the boys share useless random information. Deal takes an excruciatingly long time to eat because he uses his jaws for talking, not eating. Most of the time Sometimes I lose my patience because we have all cleaned our plates, digested, and gotten hungry for a snack by the time Deal is done eating. I try to remind myself that there will come a time I miss his little 8-year old voice that still echoes his toddler voice. I tell myself that the boys’ schedule will soon interrupt family dinner. I can’t bear to think of it. Drive-thru dinner is not part of our family DNA. We are sit-around-the-table folks, cloth napkins and all.
For now, I make family dinner a priority. I am confident the boys will appreciate it one day. I know they will carry these memories when they are parents themselves.
The Family Dinner Project is a grassroots movement that champions family dinner as an opportunity to have food, fun, and conversation about things that matter (Start by saying your thanks-yous!). In partnership with Giving Tuesday, The Family Project has created a site with tips, tools, and pretty infographics and printables to help families have conversations about how to give on Giving Tuesday and beyond. Have a look and focus on what matters – food and family!
