Family Dinners

The Meaning of Family Dinners!

When I was growing up it didn’t matter what was on the dining room table, what mattered was who was surrounding the table. I think mostly because I was a kid and I didn’t know much about cooking, I also never put much thought into it. My Mom always made a point of making sure we had dinner together every night, all five of us. It was really important to her. There were a lot special times at those dinner tables, I am sure some of my readers can relate as well; you talked about your day, how school was and if what we had for homework. I can remember dinner ending in one of three ways, laughter (something was said by one of us or our dad to get us going), or being sent to my room (yes, I got in trouble sometimes), and then once in a while there was a dinner where we all behaved, in that case  the dishes were cleared and then we were asked to finish homework.

I truly miss those family dinners, they are some of my best memories. I think I did have a fascination with food at a young age. You would think that I came from a large Italian family with the amount of food that is always present at family functions, really, we just like to eat. My grandmother was like that too. When she had her grandkids over to stay she would go to the grocery store every third meal to get items to cook. I can remember her looking at me saying “Well Marissa what shall we have for dinner?” I remember thinking, we haven’t even had lunch! She meant lunch, dinner was lunch, and dinner was supper. Then she would smack her lips together clearly enjoying the idea of dinner possibilities. She enjoyed her food, especially bacon and chocolate pudding but not together. Every time we stayed over we were guaranteed those two items, in addition to fruit punch in her tea cups.

Thinking back when we were younger too we celebrated a lot with food. When something good happened or there was a birthday we always had a family dinner celebration. I can remember when it was our birthday we would get to choose where to get food from. As we got older we would be able to bring a friend that could go out to dinner with the family. In a lot household’s people gather for celebrations over dinner.

These family dinners were so important to me. One specific memory was if something happened at school that day, I could not wait until I got home to tell my mom. Or even better, wait until my dad was out of work to tell him in front of my sisters. It was such a big deal to have something good to say at the dinner table at night. I loved telling them how hard I worked on a project or studied on a test and to be able to say that you had done well on your school work was so gratifying. As an adult, I couldn’t imagine not having that as a child.

As I look back at these family dinners, it was not about the food so much as it was about the family time that the five of us were having. That was really important and I really think that is lacking in today’s families. I am not going to be all preachy on this website but I do believe that food/meals are something that brings us all together. It’s when we are made to take time out of our busy day and to commit ourselves to our families like my parents had done for us. Then we are truly giving today’s kids a foundation.

Now, as we have gotten older, moved out into our own spaces, we have our own family dinners. My family still has those large group dinners from time to time in and now, joining us are three men and a little boy, my nephew. There is a lot of laughing, no one is sent to their room, even though my parents wish they could at times. There is laughing and that usually causes tears to run down a two very happy cheeks. The family dinners are even more important now and even though we have grown in numbers, its’ more fun than ever. There is so much love to go around.  I am thankful every day and hope for many family dinners!

From my kitchen to yours……

~Marissa~