There's Still Hope!!!
Well, all those picturesque family dinners where the members all sit round a table, talking about their day while spooning food into their mouths… we didn’t do that. Okay, let me rephrase, we didn’t do that every day. With the way things were, we could only eat together on Sundays because that was when everyone was home.
My Mom is a teacher and she always leaves home early. We took our meals when we could, and it was usually when it was best for us, considering what we had going for us at the time. We ate breakfast when we were ready to go to school. We had lunch the moment we returned from school. And considering we kids went to different schools, lunch time was different for everyone. Dinner was also different; we ate when we could. Which was either immediately it was ready, or after we were done with whatever we were doing.
Even now, I can remember how my Mom used to be mad at me back then. I loved food a lot, and I’m usually the first to run to the kitchen with my plate so she’d dish mine. However, before she’s done dishing the food for everyone and settling down to eat, I would have finished up my own. As she’s leaving the kitchen to eat, I’m entering the kitchen to drop my used plates. She was always angry at me because it showed that I ate the food and finished it up within minutes.
On Sundays though, it’s different because we’re all home. Not all of us though, because throughout my childhood, my brothers were rarely home. Either because of school or work. We tried to make it work on Sundays, but we didn’t limit it to just meals; we also had family time when we watched movies. I was usually the only guy in the house at such periods, and the ladies always outvoted me all the time. Especially considering 75% of them were my seniors. So we watched what they wanted to watch.
That’s where my love for cartoons stemmed. Back then, I watched literally all Disney cartoons, I watched all the Barbie movies that came out, and I could even sing their songs from heart. Today, I still have a playlist of Barbie songs on Spotify and YouTube. But I enjoyed those periods, because they were evidence that regardless of how things were, if the family could come together to do things as mundane as eating and seeing movies together, anything else they do together will be memorable.
Going through so many posts on this topic, I saw that many people actually did experience eating together on a daily basis. Some even ate from the same plate… nah, we didn’t do that. I personally don’t read a lot into it, but many people do. When I had a roommate in ND2, we didn’t eat from the same plate, but we cooked in the same pot. My food was his, and his stuff was also mine. We didn’t need permission before we could use one or the other. Later on, when we started staying on our own, it didn’t change. We still eat from different plates.
Eating from the same plate is a deeply personal act, and so far, I’ve only done it with my girlfriend. Which, like many people, was something she grew up with as well. I guess I’m slowly learning and slowly changing. There are so many things I’m pushing to continue even as an adult and as I’m trying to establish myself. The family meals will definitely be a staple, because I’ve seen firsthand how instrumental it can be in building familial bonds. And then, family time on Sundays will also be important. Watching movies together and just doing silly things.
Well, it’s all good. The world is going crazier and crazier. It’s good to see that people are getting more intentional about the kind of families they’re looking to raise, and people want more proactive presence in the lives of their kids.
Maybe there might be hope for future generations after all.
On some ocassion like wedding or parties we still end up eating together, especially the cousin .... but on family we never did that except we were too small to take our own bite....it was alwsys the golden that we all cherish now.
Yeah... looking back, we can see just how much that would have helped us.
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Thank you for this.
In my case I am quite lucky because since childhood I used to have dinner at least with my family everyday. I believe that in your family, eating dinner together could be possible if everyone wanted. Isn't it?
It wouldn't have been posible to do it every day. That's why communal meals were only had on Sundays. That was the only time we all could be around and eating at the same time.
Many people actually did experience eating together on a daily basis. I find that sweet and surprising because I didn't get to do that. Sometime in February, I did a video call with a friend when they were cooking. They served the food in one big plate and the first question I asked was “Who will finish this big food?” Apparently, they eat together from the same plate and they have been doing that since they were kids.
That’s impressive!!
Hehe... at least, this can be something to try out when we also start raising families of our own. It's all good.