I grew up in a family whose rule about eating meals is having them together.
Except for when breakfasts were spent hurriedly, there were times when we just took our time with them, especially on weekends. Having breakfast together is more than just eating the food at the table. It’s also about gathering together in the kitchen to discuss anything while preparing breakfast.
Do you want two teaspoons of sugar for your coffee?
Having breakfast with them also lets me know my family better, such as their preferences.
And because each of us has matters to attend to for the rest of the day (which means parents go to work and children go to school, at least during that point in my life), the next opportunity we get to gather is during dinner time.
What’s nice about dinners is that everyone seems more carefree than in the morning, unbothered by how long it would take to sit around the table. The table conversations are also what make dinners with families memorable. I remember how we used to have a good laugh, especially when relatives and friends joined us and shared our sentiments about how good the food was.
Aside from catching up with how everybody’s day went, it’s also an opportunity to air out external grievances and seek advice from another family member, making the family closer than when they choose to spend the same time with friends.
Now that I am married, I am genuinely grateful that my husband shares the same values about sitting around the dining table together. And most importantly, he’s also keen on doing groceries so that he can cook us healthy dinners.
“If you wait until you’re hungry to think about dinner,” John said, “you’ll make bad choices.”
From The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More by Bruce Feiler
jessa 