The concept of the family dinner is great. All of you sit down together at the table and share a meal, do some heavy family bonding and walk away feeling that much more accomplished at life.
Yeah, the reality of this adventure in my house goes more like this:
Make dinner...with the help of either no one, or all three girls, who all have different opinions of how things should be...do the cream sauce...no, I liked the one with more chicken stock, I don't like sauce. Why are you making that...I hate that, etc, etc.
Set the table...usually assigned to whomever is nearby, followed by " Why do I haaaaaaave to do it?"
Sit down, say grace, followed by lots of " Can you please pass the xyz"
And then, wait for it...
Dead silence....crickets or what have you. No one has anything to say. We cannot hold a conversation while sitting at the same table. Move everyone around....one person sitting at the table, one person sitting at the computer, two people in the living room (my house is sort of like a townhouse set up, first floor is pretty open concept...so the dining room and living room are open to each other) and no one stops talking. It's insane. I don't know why, but this is just the way it happens. It's like being on that awkward date...you know it's awkward, you might even acknowledge it's awkward, but you still don't do anything about it. The only conversation happening at this point is about how weird it is that we don't stop talking until you put us all at the table together, it feels kind of like a meeting of the UN or something...I guess it just feels a little too formal. Even if we go out to eat, there is more conversation on the way to and from the restaurant than there is once we are seated.
