photo credit: wickenden

Could we create more resilient families with something so simple?  What family meal traditions do you remember, or better still, continue?

I come from a large family.  And once upon a time we all sat down and ate dinner together.  Family style, and, as they say in Basque restaurants “please pass the peas.”  Dinner time was sacrosanct – even if you were going out on a date, you first sat down to dinner with the family!

Now a-days that happens maybe on Thanksgiving or Christmas.  But the rest of the year, it’s catch as catch can.  Every man and child for themselves.  And often we have what my sis’ calls “CORN” for dinner – as in Clean Out Refrigerator Night!  I think we miss out the best parts of living with this short-order, take it and run lifestyle.

Apparently, according to experts who study these things, when families eat meals together the kids and parents communicate more, are better nourished and even excel academically – hmmm, I wonder, do even the parents do better in school?  Read all about it in the Magic of the Family Meal.

So How Did We Get to This Juncture?

I blame it on the microwave.  It used to be that the cook cooked one meal and when it was ready, everybody partook.  Yes you have to eat dinner with us.  Don’t like what’s being served?  Too bad.  Eat or starve.  Not so today – now each person can have their very own custom meal thanks to the miracle of microwaving.

And I blame it on laptops with Wi-Fi and X-Box, and Prime Time TV and cell phones and texting and all the other social network toys that pull us away from each other even when we’re together.

And then there are the helter-skelter schedules that consume our “nows”.  Families of all shapes and sizes, couples, cobbled-together households, parents plus kids, plus what we used to call “strays” who just happened to be there, we all wave as we go by, gripping our HotPocket and a drink.  We rush, out of sync with each other, barreling through complex schedules into lives sans shared meals.  What a shame.

Am I Advocating Family Style Eating?

Not if I have to cook the meal.  I’m a bona fide microwaving short order cook when I’m not saying “Do it yourself.”  So what is it I’m advocating?  I think I’d like to see more around-the-table gatherings during which we share our nourishing conversation while we eat our customized microwaved fast food.  Sort of have it both ways … easy food joined with family camaraderie at the end of the day. Or, given our busy lives, how about just one evening a week that’s sacrosanct and reserved for the family meal?  Even the U.S. Government has an opinion on this.

What do you think – is such a thing even possible these days?