Eating Together
Does your family eat meals together? I mean, you sit down at the table in your home and pray together, then eat; talking to each other and spending some time together connecting?
Kids today are hyper involved in sports and other extracurricular activities. Families always seem to be running here and there. Johnny has baseball practice, Ella has dance class, Tanner has soccer practice. There is nothing wrong with these activities - but I think they are taking a toll on our families.
I do remember sitting down at the table with the family and eating dinner. That was normal - that's what families did. But that's not the case anymore - or at least it's very rare. That was important to me, so no matter what activities my daughter was involved in, we still made sure we ate dinner together. Even if that meant it was only 15-20 minutes of sit down time together before she headed off somewhere or I did. You can accomplish a lot of 15-20 minutes. Our routine was to say our meal prayer and then I would ask my daughter what the best thing was that happened to her that day. She groaned at first, but eventually, she learned to answer without complaint. Sometimes, the best thing that happened to her was that I made dinner and we were eating together. Then, we would talk about the other things that happened and discuss those things.
We need to get back to eating together as a family and by that, I mean sitting down at the dinner table and talking to one another and even looking at each other. No technology, just people coming together. Getting to know one another. Loving one another and showing it. Support each other in the good things that happen and show compassion when the not so good things happen.
I really thought other families did the same thing we were doing - eating meals together at home. The first hint I had that they were not is when I went to confession and the priest, for my penance, told me to make sure our family sat down together at least 4 times a week to eat a meal at home. I told him we did that already at least 5-6 times a week. He was surprised (and gave me a different penance). I was surprised at his surprise.
How will we ever get to know our family if we don't spend quality time together without interruptions? Life is busy - make dinnertime a refuge. A time your children know they will have your attention and you will have theirs. Yes, even 15-20 minutes is enough time to connect if that's all the time you have sometimes. Sit around the table, pray together, talk to each other.
When my daughter moved away from home, she tells me that's one of the things she missed the most was sitting down to dinner together. When she visits, sitting down for meals is the top of our list of things to do. We pray, talk, laugh and even clean up the dishes together afterward.
That's the life!
