The following account of an evening in our home a few months ago is dedicated to my sister-in-law Kristin after our conversation about mealtime difficulties today. On the day this occurred, I was really wishing I had a blog. Writing about this was therapeutic for me, as I have discovered blogging to be also. Now when things don't go quite right, rather than getting upset I can just take a picture and be glad for more blogging material. It sure helps me have a sense of humor in the day to day challenges of family life. Enjoy.
At what point did we lose control?
So it’s a typical night in our family. Chris gets home from work around 6:30pm. We had talked on the phone earlier, and he generously volunteered to pull dinner together when he got home. Of course I let him. So Chris is in the kitchen creating a quick and delicious chicken and rice dinner. Josh is unloading the dishwasher. Seth is dusting. Annie and I are in her room reading books. All is going just fine.
Chris serves up the chicken and rice, and we all come to the kitchen table. Seth takes one look at his plate and starts saying things like “yuck!” “I do not want to eat that!” “That rice looks gross.” (you get the point). I coach him on using manners and threaten to make him prepare the next dinner if he doesn’t stop. I flower Chris with praise and appreciation for the dinner he so kindly prepared. We have a blessing on the food. No major problems there (atypical). We dig in, me still expressing gratitude and compliments to Chris. The kids skip the rice and chicken and go directly for the bottled peaches. They are soon begging for more. Annie decides that using her fork isn’t very efficient for eating the peaches, so she abandons it and uses her hands. Both hands. After one refill she drinks the leftover peach juice from her bowl and then tries to lick the remnants off the sides of the bowl. Her hands and face are covered with peach juice. Josh eats his chicken but keeps laying down on the bench while chewing and is crowding Chris off the seat.
Seth didn’t like the lemon water (he wanted to try it since I used the first official lemon from our lemon tree—one of three lemons on the tree—maybe next year we’ll have a larger crop). So Seth tries to pour his water back into the pitcher. Chris saw that coming and grabbed the pitcher before Seth got to it. But Seth dumped his water anyway—right in the middle of the table. At least it wasn’t spilled milk. Just dumped lemon water.
Seth’s peaches are gone, and I tell him that if he eats his chicken, I’ll give him more peaches. Suddenly his “stomach hurts,” and he’s laying down with his head in my lap and trying to grab my hand to pat his stomach. I resist so that I can use my hands to eat my dinner. Annie has made her way from the little chair at the head of the table to the little spot on the bench next to me. She wipes her peach-juicy hands all over my shirt and pants and is still begging for more peaches. Josh is bent over and on his knees on the opposite bench, periodically taking bites. While Annie hangs on my right arm, Seth is coming at me from the left, trying to lay in my lap. Chris and I take turns trying to get him to sit up and eat. I give up and feed him a bite of chicken while he’s laying on my lap. I’m enjoying my rice, Seth’s rice, and Annie’s rice. Annie finished her lemon water and got a refill. Since I didn’t give her any more peaches, she’s playing with her water cup. Then she’s dumping the water from her cup. She pours it directly into my lap. Lucky for Seth he wasn’t laying there at the moment. Unlucky for me, I’m now enjoying my rice with very wet pants, sticky peach juice on me, Annie hanging on me and now begging for a bath, Seth laying on me and not eating his dinner. Seth’s loses his battle and gets banished to his room. Annie runs after him with her sticky hands (I’m sure I’ll discover what she touched at a later time). Josh keeps trying to leave the table before he’s done. I’m finishing off everyone’s rice. Chris is cleaning the rice cooker as we wonder how and when we lost all control. I finish off the peaches. Seth later returns, and I find him in the kitchen drinking the juice out of the peach bottle. Annie is trying to get her bath. Josh is now composing a song on the piano and trying to get out of studying his math facts. Isn’t Seth supposed to be on his bed? No one cleared off their plates, the table still needs clearing, and the dishes aren’t done.
Is this what it’s like at your homes?
Obviously we've got a little work to do in this area, but we still value that precious time together each day around the table. Hooray for families, mealtime madness and all!
