Really curious about something

lets see, I get home from work. We hop in the car and drive somewhere to pick up dinner. Then we go in the bedroom and I eat sitting on the bed and he eats sitting on a chair infront of the tv with a tv tray infront of him I would really love to start having sit down meals again!

Desert??? what is that we never get desert

I LOVE cooking, provided I'm not sick or struck down with bronchitis as I am now.

My fiancee and I sit down at the table each evening to have dinner. I generally am the one who makes the homecooked meal. Prep work doesn't take long and since we both work, the meals made don't take longer than 15-20 minutes to cook. Though on weekends when the universe decides that I have the time, I try my hand at roast chicken or an exotic curry that takes hours to cook so that the flavours are able to infuse themselves into the meat. I even put together a Japanese dinner party for two one weekend.

The tradition isn't dying at my place. It's well alive. It has to do with both of our upbringings. I know that he also ate at the table and excused himself when he too thought that he was finsihed. Though I never had to excuse myself, I was always last to finish, still am. And when Christmas and Chinese New Year rolled round, the house would be full of relatives and family friends. But I always found myself in the kitchen watching the food being prepared, smelling the herbs and spices and how they intermingled with each other and the food they were added to. Mmmm...getting hungry now...

Originally posted by hissy
When I was growing up, my parents always made it a point that we all get together every night and eat dinner at the table. It was always a homecooked meal, my mother was/is an excellent cook. We had to sit up straight, no elbows on the table, no reaching past other members for food, and ask to be excused from the table when we *thought* we were finished eating. If my parents wanted us to stay, we had to until they finished eating. Later when we were watching television- desert would be brought out on small trays and we would eat our desert in the family room.

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Sounds like my household growing up with dinner promptly at 6:30, although we were only allowed to watch TV on Sundays.

We eat most of our meals today on TV trays unless we have company, then we do the full table spread and generally follow the above protocals.

When my brother and I were younger we always ate as a family, at the table. No exceptions. We still do to this day, when I go over on Sundays.

At home me and Jim just eat at the coffee table in front of the TV My kitchen table is pretty much my mail station

Ted and I allways eat at the kitchen table.it was the way we were brought up,and it is when we can talk about our day.

You know it's funny you ask this here, cause my cats actually got me back to the dinner table. We were getting into the bad habit of sitting at the TV, I don't have kids. But now my hubbie and I go to the table and are more formal cause we didn't want the cats to jump in our food. I like it better and Dr Phil says eating in front of the TV makes people eat more. I did grow up eating at the table with everyone in the family soI know what you mean. And I do think it's sad that tradition is dying. I wonder why? Too much stress I would think.
My Mom didn't work. And I am sure even needed a project to do in a way so wanted to make a full meal! I do love to cook and if I didn't work full time I would make more elaborate meals.

We grew up with the same tradition, and if I didn't finish everything on my plate I wasn't allowed to leave the table. Any time fish, mushrooms or asparagus was served (I love all of them now, LOL) I slept at the table. Dad would carry me up to bed, because I always woke up there.

As adults with no kids living in an RV, we don't even have a dining room table anymore. First it came out for the "office." Then we got laptops. Then we got cats and replaced the "office" with cat furniture.

When growing up my family sat at the table. Now there is just me, but I still set at the table for supper.

I grew up with that tradition as well! We all sat down at the kitchen table and ate our food...and all the food was in serving bowls. But with hubby and I we just get our food right out of the pans off the stove and usually eat in the living room while watching TV. I want to change this now that we have a child and start sitting down at the table to eat, but old habits die hard. I think when she is old enough to actually sit at the table, I am going to try to change things...I think it is good to sit down with your family and eat a meal without watching TV or taking food into the living room to eat. It should be a time to share what has happened in our day and spend some time together. I also feel bad because I was taught to pray (say Grace) before each meal, and I usually forget to do this! I need to do better about that! I feel guilty when I see families in a restaurant holding hands and praying before their meal, because I was also taught to do this and have gotten so bad about remembering to do so.

We used to always sit down at the table. Now we don't really, unless we have ppl over. Everyone has different schedules (although I'm the only one who has to work nites). We used to have it all set and everything. We had to excuse ourselves after we were done. We never had the punishment of sitting until everything was finished on our plates, but we did finally figure out that (especially at Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter etc) that when we had turnips (aka rutabagas, which none of us liked) if you took a teeny little spoonful and a whole lot of mashed potatoes, and butter and gravy and salt and pepper, and mixed it all together, you couldn't taste the turnipss really. And this from all of us kids who eat everything in sections: Veggies first (cuz they get cold the fastest and are gross when they are cold), then potatoes then meat. Mom asked us once how/where we learned to eat that way b/c she didn't teach us that way! And all of us do it too! Now we are lucky to actually eat a whole meal...usually when we have some "good" food (homecooked actual food) I'm working and very seldom actually get leftovers. At Christmas time, at my grandma's, the adults were usually the only ones to sit at the table. We had a little table set up for the kids so we'd sit there. Now we still have a kids table, even though we are all over 20 now lol It's more fun. We are all the same age, ranging from 20-27 I think, so we all have lots in common. Anyways, enough babbling from me on this subject lol

When I was growing up, my family always ate dinner together, no excuses. Anything you wanted to do, you did before or after dinner. You had to be at the dinner table and you had to eat everything that was put in front of you. Nowdays, I usually eat at my desk since it is one of the few places the Kitties are not allowed and they all know it.

We don't have a table even because we don't have room for it. We actually have two dining tables but they're in storage.

I wish we did have room for it though. Eating at the table is so special.

When I was growing up we always had dinner at the kitchen table. On Sundays, holidays and when company would come over, we ate at the dining room table. We would tell each other how our day went. My mother and father were not strict about no elbows on the table and things like that. The conversation and the laughter flowed freely.

I live by myself, so it feels funny and loney to eat at the table alone. When I go to my sister's house (which is the house I grew up in) we always sit at the table to eat. Even if it is just the two of them, they sit at the table, so she has carried on the tradition of sitting at the table.

Though Gary and I do not sit down to a table to eat, and we do not always eat at the same time, the one thing we do each day is spend a few minutes together without work going on (I work from home almost all the time, and he works from home frequently - we're partners and work for the same firm), without the TV on (or at least on mute) and we share at least one nice thing that happened to us today or one nice thing we did for "someone" (which can include animals ).

And whenever we are guests at someone's home - or hosting a BBQ or dinner at someone's home (which we do frequently for biz), we share this idea with them and make everyone at the table do it.

It's great for people with kids, because it's so much more than "what did you do at school today?" It's not a fact-oriented thing, it's a qualitative thing, and people are always surprised at what they start learning about each other and their kids that they would never have known otherwise.

My family also always ate supper at the table and had a homecooked meal that Mother had prepared. We each had our assigned seats and something about knowing that was YOUR seat was comforting. Now, there was no horsing around at the table. The table was for eating only and a little conversation as long as it did not get too off the wall. When you were finished you put your silverware in your plate and told Mother what a good meal it was (even if it wasn't your favorite) and thank you. Now it's just me and the kitties and I eat on the couch while watching TV and shoo kitties away from my plate. I'm sure my Father has rolled over in his grave at such behavior.

However, my Father worked late one night a week, so my Mother would fix my brother, sister, and I Campbells chicken noodle soup and sandwiches for dinner. It was such a treat. Now it a staple.

I would love to go back just one night, and say, please pass the potatoes.