My son recently had to do a spotlight and was asked to tell about one of his favorite family memories. I was interested to hear his response and was quite surprised when he said he our family dinner table. In his mind, we’ve had so many laugh-out-loud moments and fun conversations (that we still quote every now and then to laugh over again), that that is one of his favorite memories.
This was sort of a parent payday for me. Sometimes getting dinner on the table for a large family is a monumental feat and then when everyone finally sits down, it can be loud and chaotic. But to hear that the chaos and craziness really means something to my kids makes me feel good. All that effort has turned into fun memories and family legends. Maybe someday my grandkids will tell me how their dad told them about some of the crazy stuff we talked about at the family dinner table.
So when I’m planning out my family menus this week, I’m definitely going to be smiling and looking forward to that time of day when we’re all around the table laughing and teasing (and yes, sometimes bickering). After all, that’s what family memories are made of.
What are you having for dinner tonight? Do you have fun family dinner table memories?
I'm an award-winning romantic suspense novelist, but in my free time I love to review books and my fave TV shows, as well as pass along great book deals, and eat Canadian chocolate---not necessarily in that order.
2 comments:
The one rule around my dinner table while my kids were growing up was that they didn't need to finish everything on their plate. I know this sounds contrary to every parenting guideline, but when I was young I had to sit at the table until my plate was clean no matter how long it took. (even for liver and such. Ick... I still won't eat certain things because of my dad's rule.) Recently I had two phone pics from my 23-year-old son and his bride. They were eating at a nice restaurant. Part of their dinner was a salad. They wanted me to see them smiling and eating their greens. I did a happy dance--and told them so! I figured someday my kids would want to eat the right things all on their own without my force-feeding them. A mother's patience is long waiting.
This to me was a cherished memory!
How nice that you've made such wonderful memories for your family. Our family don't eat together as often as I would like but we usually all get together and shoot the breeze for an hour or so when the girls get home from school. It's one of my favourite parts of the day.
I know this is late but I wanted to say congratulations on meeting your NaNo word count goal. I'm so pleased for you x
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