Family Time

Shortly after my oldest son was born, my wife Dana, took voluntary layoff from the company where she worked to be a stay-at-home-mom. For the next 16 years, she worked at home--being a stay-at-home-mom IS WORK! I've seen it, and let me tell you, it ain't sitting around the house, watching soap operas and eating bon-bons all day.

During that period, we got into the routine of eating dinner (or supper depending on what you call the evening meal in your neck of the woods) together as a family. We still do. Dana began teaching at a private school in our town after our youngest son started junior high, but to this day, we still eat our evening meal together. Me, Dana AND the two boys (the oldest is now 20) still sit down to a home-cooked meal most every evening except Wednesdays; that's church night and there's really no time to cook and clean up and still make it to church. That night, it's every man--or woman--for themselves. But, every other evening, including weekends, we eat together.

I look forward to that time. We catch up on each other's day, rehash the news, share funny stories or jokes, etc. We have some serious discussions from time to time as well. It's nice having the whole family together at the end of the day. I get the feeling that lots of families don't have or make the time to eat dinner together and that's too bad. They're missing out.