Friday, November 09, 2007

Family Dinner?

It's common knowledge that the family dinner is becoming a thing of the past, with so many families eating on the run. All the parenting "experts" tell us how important this is, and I do remember lots of lively conversations from my own family growing up. My kids are still small, so we don't have soccer or Scouts to keep us from eating together...we just have two 2 year olds and one tired 6 year old to contend with. Now that Michael and Emily are in chairs at the table, they are better at staying seated, and I even find they eat more. Sophie really does provide an example for them. So this is our new routine: all three children eat together around 5:30. I sit with them to referee and lead the scintillating conversation..ha, ha. Then after they are in bed, I enjoy a peaceful dinner with the newspaper. Here are some scenes from last night's dinner, I think it was a lovely cheese omelet, toast and fruit.



Sophie again wanted to do the dishes, so I showed her how to load the dishwasher, and put away everything before she actually got in the sink. And not even a mention of me paying her. Here she is in action:


5 comments:

Mike Maier said...

If only Clare had video to prove how young she was when she started standing on a stool to reach the sink...

StephB said...

Marvelous that Sophie is helping!

We do family dinner here too, but we eat at 5:30 with the little ones. Everyone is in bed at 8. : )

By the way, I love the divided plates. Very helpful.

Dorothy Gould said...

Mike, She was standing on a stool, and I so thought about Clare as I was taking the video. And also how Mary and Peg used to practice for the Christmas Concerts at PTHS while doing dishes. Good times.

Steph, I do like the divided plates, they seem to help. They come in very handy for carrots and dip, or pasta and sauce. Sophie is big into dipping right now.

Anonymous said...

The humidity from the dishpan is sooo good for the vocal cords! Curiously enough, Alex and Dave don't sing while they're washing, hmmm...
I think some of my most memorable dinners were the discussions re Nixon in the early 70s when Clare was home from Glassboro College, lively to say the least!
Mary

Peg Odenthal said...

Oh Holy Night ...... my exact next question was "where are her rubber gloves"???!! Dont think they even make them that small! What a great helper .. Peg