You’ve heard that saying “a change is as good as a holiday“, right? Well my guess is that the person that said it wasn’t on holiday, or on a holiday that seriously needed some more sun or less children whining. Nevertheless we gave the saying a chance and made a drastic change to our daily lives by moving one big-little thing from one room to the other.
We moved the dining room table into the kitchen.
At first when Seth mentioned that he wanted to do it (and then proceeded to pin 50 different options to Pinterest) I was sceptical to say the least. Because why would we want to take the table out of a perfectly good dining spot and put it into a rather cramped kitchen?! Besides the fact that I thought it would look rather odd, why “fix” something that’s not broken?!
But it was broken.
I realised this after I helped Seth pick up the monster table and lift it over our toddler barricade into the kitchen. I was sitting down to have some tea (at the table) when I noticed that the girls were there too (sitting at the table). By some kind of crazy wizardry my husband had made one of my family ambitions come to fruition (how’s that for a big word on a Friday?!)
One thing that I have always wanted to do when I had a family, was/is to sit and eat together as a family and catch up on each others days and how things are going in their lives. When they’re young it’s important because I want them to see that we are eating what they eating and it encourages good eating habits. But when they’re older I want to be able to sit together and have a moment in the day to connect with everyone, without the distraction of a TV, cell phone or other random social device that totally stops us from being social with each other in person!
Before this the girls used to eat at their own little plastic table in the kitchen. We didn’t allow them to eat at the big table in the dining area because oh my word, the mess! Whatever they eat goes EV-ER-Y-WHERE! For reals. Sometimes I find the spaghetti that they were eating on the under sides of the chairs – how it got there astounds me, how it stayed stuck there makes me wonder about the quality of my cooking. But anyway…
Guys, it’s awesome.
Because the table now functions as the preparation space as well as the sitting place, every afternoon the kids gather around the table while I explain how I am making supper. While Knox plays with toys attached to his chair, the girls smell all the ingredients and sometimes taste them, they ask lots of questions and we chat. After it’s ready, we sit together and eat.
It has changed from a time that use to stress me out (and therefore ended with takeaways or really bad food that was half made while carrying a baby) to a time that I am really starting to enjoy (except the cooking part – I just am not passionate about that yet). I am still kind of in awe of it all.
Do you sit together for family meals? Where do you usually eat supper?
