Did your family eat around the dinner table?

@Lore2009 (7378)
United States
October 19, 2010 6:05pm CST
Did your family eat around the dinner table and talk? That is one of my ideals. I'd like a family to sit together at the dinner table and talk and talk and talk, without the TV! My family was not like that. The TV was always on and the other parent never home. How were you raised at dinner?
6 people like this
32 responses
@toniganzon (72317)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
I was raised to have family dinner together with the whole family and no TV. There was only one television set in my house and it's only in my parents' room. We were allowed to watch tv together with them until 9pm only during the weekends. In the weekdays we were never allowed to watch tv because of school, but during vacation time, it's still until 9pm. Our parents' bedroom was like our comfort zone. In fact when cousins would visit us we would entertain them in that room because the video game was also there. Spending time with my family in that room was really fun. It was the best days of my life. Too bad it has to end when I was 13.
2 people like this
• United States
20 Oct 10
Lore- Growing up we always had dinner, and all meals, around the dinner table. I cannot recall a time when we did not. The chatter would depend upon the night at hand. At times after my parents divorce the chatter was very little. In our house we share only one meal together because of my husband's work hours but we try to have it as a family. Though at times we do picnics where we sit in the living room on the floor and watch a movie together whilst watching a movie. Our children are very little so the chatter is mostly between myself and my husband, filtered with lots of questions about why food is this color and that, etc. I suppose the conversations are more Sprout level but it's all good in our eyes. Namaste-Anora
2 people like this
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
19 Oct 10
Our family has always eaten 3 meals a day seated around the kitchen table. When our kids were small we all sat around the table and the smallest child sat in a High-chair. Our third son was famous for throwing food to the cat which was usually sitting under his chair. We never had a TV in the kitchen, and we seldom ate in the living room. We always had fun and talked while we ate, around the kitchen table.
2 people like this
@ergfortes (516)
• Philippines
19 Oct 10
This is really an ideal scenario, and i should say that i'm thankful that i was in one before. When my mom is still alive, my family would always eat together in one table and talk about the things that happened to us in the day. we talk about what happened in school and our plans for the coming weekend. i miss those days. now when ever i have chance and i'm home, i would wait for them to eat and rekindle the times with my mom.
@DertyJ (192)
• United States
19 Oct 10
My family and I used to eat around the dinner table every single night but now we do maybe 2 or 3 nights out of the week max. Over the summer we rarely eat together at all mainly because I get home late and usually eat by myself. I do like eating with my family but I have learned to not mind eating alone.
2 people like this
• United States
19 Oct 10
My family has never eaten together since i was little. They were hardy ever both home and when they were, dad was usually too tired and mom was busy making plates and then dad would go back to his room and my mother, my brothers and i would just go in the living room and eat on the couch.
2 people like this
@thaida (52)
• Romania
20 Oct 10
in my family is just my mom and my brother.me and my brother live in othar city tan my mom(we moved in a bigger city for studies).and very rarely we all togheter..so we eat at the dinner table and talk to catch up...cause even we talk by messenger or phone daily..face to face is different.too bad these moments are pretty rare in my family
1 person likes this
@I_LUV_U (2519)
• India
20 Oct 10
Sadly no. I concede that the fault is all mine; because I'm the one who doesn't eat with them and without me the family picture wouldn't be complete. Sad but this is no matter of shame to me, because I'm so disciplined that I never know when I'm gonna have my next meal around. I don't eat from time to time; I eat from hunger to hunger. The world is juvenile and doesn't follow my timetable; therefore breaking familial ties and breeding obesity. Trust me, indiscipline (as the world likes to call it) is the best cure for obesity, and dining hall get-togethers are its breeding grounds.
1 person likes this
@bingskee (5234)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
almost everyday except when one of us is out for a reason, we eat supper and talk about anything, even with the tv on (we have a tv at the dining room). it is always a happy experience. it is one of the things i love to go home for.
1 person likes this
@maezee (42003)
• United States
20 Oct 10
Heck no! Well we used to, my mom, my dad, my sister, and myself - until I turned about 11 I think? My parents had a messy separation (divorce, but they were too cheap to do that, so they are still technically separated.. lol) and me and my sister had to fend for ourselves - including cooking for ourselves. I usually ate soup or something like that, by myself, in front of the TV watching re-runs of Law & Order until I was about 16, got a car, and a check card, and learned how to use the 'drive thru' LOL. The only time me and my sister would eat with our dad was when we went out to eat, usually on Wednesdays, where we got tacos at the local bar. Which was OK. We were pretty independent, or learned to be that way, anyway. Occasionally I'll still go out to eat with my dad, but I'm 20 now so I definitely don't expect him to start cooking for me.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (214294)
• Chile
20 Oct 10
I live alone now but even now I don´t have a TV in the dining room. When I had my family with me, the meals were the moments of being together, telling each other what had happened during the day and so on. Once, a very catholic friend tried to explain to my atyheist husband what was the meaning of the Mass. He did not understand any of it. I explained then about the dinner Christ had had with his friends. Mass, a family dinner with everyone seated together, Christ with his apostles, they as all sacred things for me.
@misheli (552)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
We do that before but now that we have our own family and some of my siblings are out of the country we have no chance of doing that anymore. But my sister is planning for a family reunion next year. She's planning to have a vacation January next year and maybe we can do that family get together again. The last time that we do that was June of 2002.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
When we were still little, our family used to have dinner together. Now, we are grown ups, we frequently ate dinner together. It was really a bad habit having dinner or lunch with tv on. Even I'm alone eating, I never watch tv.
1 person likes this
@Didimay1 (26)
• United States
20 Oct 10
I am a product of divorce, so I really didn't get an opportunity to enjoy eating around the table with my family, I tried to practice it with my own children, since it was a must in my husband's home, but due his work schedule we had to discontinue it at the worse time, during their teenage years. I tried it solo for a while, but conflicting school and work schedules got in the way. Now my kids are all grown and gone and we both regret not having that family time we lost. However, I must say that the little time we had together helped us to cope with problems that came up and reassured our children of our love for them but one thing is certain, the little we did has certainly paid off. I just wish we could have done more.
@anurag3786 (6267)
• India
20 Oct 10
No we are not eat dinner around table. Because we don’t have a long dinner table because my family is very big and we have a small table. So it is not possible to eat around it with together. But I saw in many families all family members like to eat dinner with together around the dinner tables.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
In our family we eat together, even one of the family member are not yet home we will wait them.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
Yes we definitely do. In my country such family meals together is being promoted according to studies conducted the children who does not spend their meal times together with their parents tend to open up with other age groups who may give them an advise not suited to what they need. Hence, quality family time may save your relationship as a family.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
yes .. they ,, are ,, but ,, sometimes,, i go late , at home,, because of studies,, but ,,.., i think most of the time,, we eat our dinner completely,,,. and talked.,., and i think it is nice to eat if we are complete.,,.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
Sometimes, because sometimes my parents are not around or my father is too late to came in our house. I think the things that can make our family together in dinning table are you must serve theme so that they will have a effort to ate together. :)
1 person likes this
@Sheeny (173)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
when i was a kid i still remember that we still had our dinner together as family but when my parents get separated i wasn't able to have dinner with them again. im hoping that one day we sit together at the dinning table again.
1 person likes this