Does anyone sit down to eat as a family anymore on a regular basis? Is my family the only ones intentionally taking that time to spend together to hear about each other’s days? Is that something lost to the sands of time, space, and the forever flickering of a screen?
Our family does it’s very best to sit down together every evening and eat together. I set a personal goal of having dinner ready for my wife when she gets home from work so that we can stop, eat, relax, and then the rest of the evening can be spent doing whatever needs to be done around the house or in our personal lives.
Often dinner is capped by my wife taking a few minutes to relax after a long workday, my kids either finished homework or playing a game, and me crocheting, gardening or just enjoying a quiet few moments nursing a glass of tea and hugging the dogs.
But those meals are special, because those are the moments we learn about each other. Those moments are sometimes when more is said about or days, our hopes, and our schedules than any other time of day. Those are moments that I guard with every fiber of my being because I know when they are gone, I won’t get them back!
But as kids have grown and the innocent silly toddlers have morphed into preteen anger bombs, dinner time has been more challenging. Their addiction, hell all our addiction to our screens have crept into a space that should be screen free and family filled. I’ve noticed more and more that we are all checking an email or scrolling through videos, checking social media, and generally being disengaged with each other because that phone is more enticing.
Which is why I’m looking for something that will change the narrative of dinner time and get rid of the screens. I’m looking to have that thirty-minutes to an hour become screen free for us as a family. With the kids, it’s easy. I’ll simply make them put down their devices in another room and deal with it. Doing this with my wife, who has never been the perfect submissive person in the marriage is going to be a bit trickier! Honestly navigating that discussion with her is not on my, “Ooo that sounds like fun.” chart.
But time with our children is short. They have already burned through half of this precious time simply growing and being who they are. More of that time was taken up as we spent more than half their lives sharing our time with them caring for other children who were in foster care. The time we have lost will never return, so the time we have to come is even more precious to me now.
J.Rhett Lively 