Families that eat together, stay together—or something like that. All the latest research shows that eating a meal as a family unit impacts the children’s life in a tremendously positive way (do well at school, don’t try drugs and other researched claims). So, in a mixed-up chaotic modern world, how exactly is this accomplished?
One can move supper time around by a few hours or more each night to try to accommodate everyone’s changing schedules. But sometimes it’s not the timing that’s off. Sometimes, it’s the chef who has gone AWOL.
In my house I have tried to get the family involved in cooking suppers. I agree to cook 3 days a week. On one of the other days during the week, my 13-year-old daughter cooks, on the next evening my 16-year-old daughter makes supper and on day 6, my husband cooks supper. One night a week ( our busiest) we get some sort of healthy take-out: sushi, burritos etc.
It all sounds good on paper; however, the reality is that I’m the only chef who hasn’t done a runner.
Each week, it seems, the daughter on duty has an important special event (volunteer work/extracurricular meeting or practice/important test to study for) that they cannot miss. Or, on one of their dad’s nights to make supper, I receive a phone call from the grocery store (late in the evening) to tell me he’s decided we’re going to have apples for supper because one of our daughters mentioned she had an apple craving that day.
Yep, family suppers are going swimmingly.
It seems, if I’m not the chef, no one is.
No great solutions to offer up on this one.
This chef is stumped and tired of working solo.
Sandra Hart
I think some of those excuses are rather weak and a bit of a cop out.
mixhartMix Hart
I’m with you there.