Me, my brother and my mum would eat at the table at the end of the through lounge, whilst Dad would usually sit in his chair, opposite the TV and occasionally shout at us to 'stop messing about'.
On the weekends though, particularly Sundays, Dad would sit at the table with us as we'd all attempt to chew through one of my Mums Sunday roasts.
For some reason, laughing at the table was a no no. This would result in lots of suppressed sniggering and shoulders bouncing up and down, whilst me and my brother would try not to get eye contact, as this would result in one of us bursting into laughter and promptly getting shouted at.
Since my childhood memories of family dinner time are so charged with that 'being on eggshells' feeling, to this day, when I have to sit at a table with more than Me and S, I get a funny anxious feeling and if during the meal it goes so quiet that I can hear the gentle, subdued clanking of cutlery, well, I just fall to pieces.
We had our first family dinner time this afternoon. Me, S, and our kids J & A.
We've always squashed round a coffee table with A in her high chair but after purchasing our dining table, well, we are now a sophisticated, proper, grown up family.
For about the first 2 minutes, I did hear the gentle clanking of cutlery and polite chewing of sausage, mash & veg.
Twenty minutes in and 4 yr old 'J' had stuck peas up his nostrils, 'A' was using a half eaten sausage as a rolling pin and was attempting to roll her face flat and 'S' literally cried with laughter, doubled over at the head of the table. I stood taking pictures!
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| Peas up the nose |
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| Laughing at The Dinner Table! |
The dinner still got eaten.
Afterwards I cleared the table & washed up, got a giant bar of Aero from the fridge and we all played Ludo.
The Italians have a saying, “A tavola non si invecchia mai roughly translated as, "No one grows old at the table. I think it basically means that meal times should be relaxed, enjoyed, savoured and treasured.
Talking of treasures, we trawled round another boot sale this morning and even though we had a serious discussion on the drive there, that we would not buy any rubbish and would not waste any pennies, we managed to come home with a couple of frivolous items...
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| A Skeleton Suit |
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| "The Boys side is definitely cooler than the Girls side"! |
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| Mask & wig : Worth 30 pence of any ones money... And lastly, a cake made yesterday by Me & the kids, and a toadstool. If eaten, one of these may kill you.... |
;)
I see a very good effort on your part to make and keep your family happy and full of good memories that they can talk about when they get older, as"remember when at the table..." And as I can see from my children, they remember everything.
ReplyDeleteR Jacob : It's important isn't it? creating good memories. I was looking through the photos the other day and I said to S, "we've got some bloody fantastic photo's for the kids when they're older"...it's what it's all about eh? The rest amounts to sh!t.
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