The Family Meal Table - Review

Time together at the table, enjoying a meal together, sharing our lives, maybe even enjoying scripture.  Are these lost in our families today?  Are we too busy to sit at a table together?  Is it easier to eat in front of the TV.  Are we even eating together or is everyone in the family running here and there, this practice and that friend's house?

I'll be honest, this is an area where we have struggled.  I always want to eat at the table.  Growing up, this was something we did... at my grandma's house.  At home, we ate in front of the television most nights.  If we ate at the table, it was a holiday or we were at a restaurant.

I chose this movie from Franklin Springs Family Media.  It was one of the free gifts I received from This Old Schoolhouse magazine for subscribing during their recent sale.  There were many options, but I wanted to see what this had to say about eating as a family together.

Ironically, Nancy Campbell, the host of the video, reminds me a bit of my grandmother.  It takes me back to a time when feeding our family was more than just getting them some food.  This reminds me of a time when the dinner table was the heart of the family.  Nancy Campbell talks about everything from good nutrition to family devotions.  Mostly she talked about how it nourishes more than the bodies of our family when we all sit together at the meal table and share a meal and our lives. She even made a point that it is a meal table... not just a dinner table.

I have many great memories from my childhood of dinners at grandma's house.  We had a kiddie table when it was a large dinner with lots of people.  I remember my uncle kicking us under the table to pick on us.  I remember the amazing food.  I remember lots of fun and laughter. 

I want to give some of that to my children.  It is so easy to just leave the homeschool project on the table and eat in the living room, but that may not be what is best.  One impression I got from The Family Meal Table was that mealtime isn't just family time, but training time.  We communicate at the table. We expand the world of our children with new foods. We model manners.  We teach about eating habits and nutrition as we serve good, healthy foods.  We teach about setting a table and cleaning up afterward.  Lots of lessons can be learned at the family meal table.

I read a study that said that preteens and teens that ate with their families several times a week were less likely to smoke, drink alchohol, or use drugs.  They do, however, often get higher grades. 

Families also tend to save money by eating at home.  It is definitely cheaper and more nutritious to eat at home than to eat out a lot.

I've determined to do what I can to eat together at the table in our home.  We do in spurts, but, as I said, it is easy to be lazy.  However, now that my husband is taking a job where the hours will make it difficult to be together some evenings, we have to take advantage of the time we have.  We will do what we can to eat together as a family.  It might mean that not everyone can be together all the time.  I'm hoping that it becomes a habit, eating together, and that the kids will see it as a priority in their lives and eventually their families.