Family Meals

How did you eat your last meal? Think about it. Ok, Sharon in Bekondo, you don't count :)

I've heard (and read) that the average North American family does not sit down and eat together at a table. Food is often eaten in the car on the way to yet another event, or grabbed on the run before heading out the door. Or, eaten in front of the TV.

Being out of North America for years at a time makes us unaware of how the average family functions (or dis-functions??), but this was vividly brought home to me tonight when one of Jenny's classmates came over after school. First, she and Jenny discussed over the phone who would go to whose house, and I recommended she come here, as I don't know anything about her family (we'll make an effort to meet them), and then I said she could come for supper if she wanted, but I didn't know if she liked tuna (tuna pot-pie was on the menu). She said she didn't like tuna, so she would bring her own supper. Ok. Well, when supper came, she sat down with the rest of us (we always have family meals, unless there is something else specifically planned, like a DVD movie). After a while, she politely asked, "Um, is this kind of, um, a tradition?" We were a bit confused, but she explained. "Is it a tradition for you to eat together as a family?" She said that her family never ate together; she always grabbed some food and ate while watching something on TV. Well, there's the proof; the books are right!

I think this is one "cultural norm" that we're not going to adopt as our own....