Yes, you are. Don't you just love it? Welcome to the club.

 

We eat the same way, I think it's sooo important for the family to sit down at the table and talk to each other..
once in a great while though we'll have pizza and eat where ever, but normally it's at the dinner table.. Alot of my DD's friend don't eat at the table with there family, one of her friends the mom really doesn't cook dinner, it's kinda like a free for all.. to me thats weird..
Growing up we were always at the dinner table, My dh and his family too, so we've always thought it was important.. There have been studies too that show kids get better grades when the family sits and eats at the dinner table..

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=439

 

Most of my students told me that they eat in their own rooms, either watching TV or playing video games.

The family table is unusual these days, unfortunately.

 

I like your kind of weird.......its normal!!!!!!! :goodjob:


It has been found, by studies done on families, that the rate of criminal behavior, drug addiction, smoking, problem behavior, and psycological problems are reduced greatly by families gathering together at the dinner table to eat. You have increased communication, and given you family a sense of belonging which is something you are to be commended for!!! GOOD JOB!!!!!!!!!

 

Yep, Weird.

 

Yes you are.

Congradulations!

 

I told my wife the other day that we're drifting so far from the mainstream that before long we're not even going to be able to see it.

We have the same scheduling issues as other families. On soccer nights, or Girl Scouts, we can't all be home to sit for supper, but those at most take only three nights a week and usually less. All of the other nights we all sit down to the table at the same time to the same meal with the television OFF. This is one of the things that daddy is not negotiating. On the weekends we do the same for breakfast. We don't often all sit together for lunch, but supper and weekend breakfasts we do.

I have had the same experience at being astonished at how many families no longer share even the most fundamentally basic family experience of breaking bread together. Is there any wonder that the American nuclear family is disintegrating?

.....Alan.

 

We all eat lunch and dinner together.

Hubby is at work at lunch time so it is just me and the 3 kiddos at the table but in the evening the 5 of us eat together and chat and share about our day.

The only meal we don't eat at the table together as a family is breakfast because we all get up at different times and just grab a little something when we get hungry.

 

Good for you!

When my kids were growing up, they were involved in a 1000 things and we ate in the car more than at the table! They laugh about it now.. Their friends found it strange that they did not sit at their dining tables, while in college, young single adults they ate either on the go, standing in the kitchen at the counter or driving..

Dh has always had crazy schedules so we never had real schedules like I would love to have had.. OH,well... :shrug: Queen Bee

 

Same here! I read something that said that if you can do one thing for your kids have dinner once a week together as a family. I thought "once a week???" What in the world are they doing the other 6 nights a week??? This is hard for families, once a week? Don't even get me started on what in the world passes for dinner in some peoples homes. I don't watch much TV but I saw a commercial last year for Kentucky Fried Chicken where the parents called the kids for dinner and the kids ran to the car. I guess some thoughtful parent had already brought home KFC and it was waiting on the table (kids still sitting in car). The parents said "they'll get use to it". I guess eating at the table or dinner at home? Who knows, I guess it's a cultural thing I just don't get? Not enough culture out here in the sticks

 

Wife's best friend's kids are so picky, make mine look like vultures BUT when they ccome to our house they sit at the table, say Grace and eat everything. No desert if the plate is not clean. We eat at the table as a family sure saves cleanup...

 

Same here. A lot of times when we get new foster kids they comment on it. We have had foster kids say that meal time will be one of the biggest things they will miss about living with us and we have had them say that they want to do it with their future kids. We also pray before we eat and read a 1-2 minute kids Bible devotional. We don't always eat this way but, I would estimate that we do 90% of the time.

 

I grew up in a family that had many imperfections, but we did eat dinner together every night. And we do too, at least 4 out of 5 nights. I cherish it.

 

Yes, you're strange, as judged by today's frightful standards. Be very, very proud of it!

Invite that poor deprived child for dinner again. And again. And as many other kids as you can as well. Give them a taste of your strange food and even stranger behaviour. I think they'll like it, maybe enough to transfer it to the next generation, since most of theirs missed out on it.

Get someone to come in one evening and take a photo of your abnormal meal habits. It could one day be of important historical value.

 

I have a strong opinion on the subject. If more people would just sit down and eat meals together there would be a whole lot less trouble in this country.

Family meals don't have to be fancy, as Julia Child said: "....just simple food with good ingredients and time for friendly conversation." ...or something like that.

My parents raised six kids and we ate every meal together. We discussed our day, politics, our values, solved problems together.

I did the same thing when my kids were growing up. And the TV was turned off.

When I moved to Oklahoma we lived across the street from our little grandkids. I thought it was kind of funny, because every day they seemed to just "show up" at dinnertime.

They so enjoyed sitting down together, saying grace, and passing things and learning manners.

I once attended a conference led by a French Canadian priest. I'll never forget what he said, that we evangelize the whole world from our kitchen table. That's what everybody is looking for, a family.

Family meals set a daily routine that everybody can count on.

And a game after the dishes are done--definitely!!!! We like "Boggle" and "Perquacky".

 

Sadly, yes; you are "weird". If you're asking, "Is it abnormal for a family to A) cook a real dinner, B) sit own to that dinner together, and C) talk with each other during the course of that dinner, and D) to do this regularly"? Yes... that is abnormal.

I remember a small group study a year or two ago where one of the women said to me, "It was so awesome to see your daughters in church on Sunday snuggling up to you and you hugging them. My son is 14 and wants nothing to do with us". Yep... abnormal, and give me more of it.

R

 

my son had a friend (12 yr old) come over for dinner tonight.

the kid was shocked to find out we eat "like this" every meal. (nothing more then a well rounded dinner)

he was shocked we eat at the table every night.

and he was shocked we actually talk at the dinner table.

you can read the details here

are we weird? thought this was the way everyone did it. or at least should,.

Isnt that the saddest thing????

 

When DD was home we always ate together and talked during dinner. Never thought anything about it. When she went off to college her friends would love to come home with her because we did cook and sit around together. They would love to help cook and set the table etc... Since dd has finished college and now working, when she comes home we still do that, she can't vision us eating seperate. While DH and I eat quick and simple when she's not home he jokes and calls her to see "when are you coming home again so Mom will cook", lol.

Stephanie

 

I am so glad I found this place online.. where I am not quite so weird

 

Every body thinks that the way their kitchen is run is the way of the universe.

Peel the tomatos? Don't peel the tomatos? Why DIDN'T you peel the tomatos? "Hey, you didn't peel the tomatos".

I am no longer surprised by the strange behavior in other peoples kitchens, and I fully accept that the way I do it is often considered to be wierd!

 

A couple of weeks ago, DD spent the day at a friend's house. She was brought home around 8:30 pm. She had a bag of Cheetos and a Dr. Pepper. "What are you doing with that?"

"Erica's mom doesn't cook dinner, so she just takes everyone to the gas station and lets them pick out whatever they want." Evidentially, this is a daily thing. She loads all the kids up and takes them to get junk food for dinner. No wonder Erica was amazed when she stayed here one day and we all sat down to dinner.

Have you ever tried to put an 8 year old hyped up on Dr. Pepper to bed at a decent hour?

DD had to come home that evening because her friend and mom were going to the mall to get her a razor so she could start shaving her legs. She's 8 also. I'm glad to see we have priorities. No sit down dinner, but I'll buy you an electric razor so you can start shaving your legs in 2nd grade.

 

We try to be weird as often as possible. The very best days are the ones that we get to sit down and eat together EVERY MEAL! Can you imagine....you all can, but many cannot. We also step up the weirdness every week and have four generations eat TOGETHER in one house! My mom's side of the family goes to grandma's and has a potluck Thursday nights. Up to 20 people all sitting down and visiting and enjoying each other (for the most part )

 

yep your weird but what does that have to do with eating at the table?? JK! Family meals just aren't the norm anymore one of many things that kept families closer IMHO

 

My kinda weird! We eat together every night, but usually in the living room. Our kitchen table is great, but the benches turned out to be too narrow to sit on! We just use the large trunk/coffee table instead! We turn off the tv, chat, work on homework stuff. Whatever, just so long as we spend some time connecting with each other. My son would totally freak out if we didn't eat together. The nights I close the store, they wait for me to come home so we can eat together. Some nights dinner is as late as 10 pm, just because they wait for me. Awesome feeling, that.

 

Once a coworker of mine was raving about a restaurant downtown. Really highly recommending it. So one day for lunch I tried it. I could nOT eat the carp they were putting out!
Sometime later I saw him and his wife at the grocery store, with a cart clear FULL of frozen dinners and pizzas. No wonder he liked the restaurant! Poor guy had NO Clue what food is supposed to taste like.