Family Dinners are Good for the Soul

The shared meal (family dinners) elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from the mere animal biology to an act of culture.

Michael Pollen

FAMILY DINNERS AND THE MAGIC OF SHARING AROUND THE DINNER TABLE

Some of my favorite family moments happen around the dinner table. One of the best traditions we started was the ritual of sharing 3 things around the dinner table at family dinners. We’ve continued this tradition of sharing now for about 10 years. (OMG, doing that math makes you realize time really does fly.)

This has become such an important tool for us to teach our kids how to have conversation and how to share moments about their day that mean something to them. I know more now about each of their individual personalities and their friends. I’ve watched my kids learn to ask questions to learn more about other people and best of all, how to listen to others.

Growing up, my favorite holidays were the holidays where we got to enjoy only the best foods and sit around and talk around the dinner table as a family. I liked Thanksgiving over Christmas, Chinese New Year over Easter. I remember listening to stories about my family growing up at family dinners. My parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents would tell stories. (Favorite part: listening to the giggles after wine.) My grandparents immigrated to the states from China. My dad is a first generation US Citizen. There were tough moments and struggles growing up and not having much money didn’t help. And they didn’t know it at the time, I mostly learned about hardship and struggles through my family‘s stories at family dinners. This is what has taught me to live a life of gratitude, to work hard and to not take what I have for granted.

This is what a meal means to me – it’s so much more than just eating food.

OUR FAMILY DINNER TABLE ETIQUETTE

• Say grace before you eat.
• No bodily functions at the dinner table.
• Share 3 things: about your day, friends, gratitude, challenges.
• Stay at the table until everyone is done eating.