Family Dinners

I often wonder if anyone cooks meals at home anymore. I wonder this because of how crowded restaurants are on random Tuesdays. I know that we always had dinner as a family (we called it supper then) everyday during the week. We ate at the same time everyday (six) and we all sat down together. We rarely had fast food. It was a treat if Mom or Dad stopped at McDonald's on the way home from work. This changed a little when my brother and I started working, but we still tried to eat together as much as we could.

Today, things seem much different. When I ask my students when the last time they had dinner as a family, they shrug and some say the holidays. That saddens me. This is the time when they should be enjoying being a family because soon those times will be gone.

And it isn't just my students. It's society, too. Pizza Hut has a new commercial about "dad's cooking dinner tonight" and the family walks in and dad has ordered Pizza Hut. The wife is soooo excited. In my mind I think "that isn't cooking for your family." I know that if TJ were to say he was cooking for me and I came home to Pizza Hut pizza and breadsticks, I would not run up and hug him in a passionate way. I would wonder why he couldn't take the time and effort to prepare a meal.

Bob Evans has jumped on that train, too. The scene? A big country farmhouse (complete with triangle used to call hungry farm hands). Farmer rings the triangle and yells "DINNER!" and no one comes. He continues to yell and no one comes. He rings a gong and the whole family appears next to the car...because they want stir fry at Bob Evans. What happened to the good home cooking that we usually see coming out of kitchens like that?

I will admit that I don't always love cooking or cleaning up the mess, but I like the idea of eating at home and cooking for the people that you care about. I understand the need to go out to eat every now and then, but many people go everyday...and I think that our family values and togetherness will suffer because of it. I know that TJ and I have decided that when we have a family, fast food will be a rare treat and family dinners will be common place.

I know a lot of people who have taken the fast food route and are okay with it...and if it works for them, I am not going to attack or say that it is wrong. I just think that everyone should take a few days a week to actually cook for their family. I know that it made a world of difference for me. I may not have always liked what we had for dinner, but I always liked who I shared dinner with. And I also knew that my mom had taken time out of her day to make it for me, so I felt special.

Cheesy? Maybe. Truth? Certainly.

Now that I am an adult, we still have family dinners. Every Sunday my mom and dad cook huge meals and we all go over and eat. It is great to take some time to sit together and talk and share food. It bridges any gaps that may have arisen in the week that has passed. Sometimes I take the dinner and everyone comes here. It's nice to sit down behind a plate of food that was made with love instead of with resentment. It's nice to share a meal with people I care about instead of strangers. And it's nicer still to know that it is a family tradition that will carry on through time.