Knives Forks and Pass the Potatoes

The kinder, gentler days when happy families gathered around the table for dinner are almost gone. Getting everyone to set down for dinner at the same time is almost impossible. Instead we are a nation of take outers and drive throughers, eating our meals on the go, dining by ourselves and laughing alone. The family dinner has become an endangened species, a victim of our producitivity.
Both parents work and get home at a different time. The kids usually get microwaved chicken nuggets, hot dogs, plain pasta or some other staple from the children's food pyramid. Mom and Dad eat take out that one of them has picked up on their way home. Even on days when the family sets down together, it looks more like a diner, each family member ordering his own meal. One eats pasta but does not like the red sauce, one likes the red sauce but does not like the pasta, one only likes hot dogs, no one likes milk, one does not like hot dogs and wants a burger. Everybody is picky and we accommodate because we can and because it is easier than the consequences if we don't.
The causes for the disappearing family dinner are many. Both parents are working longer hours and have to commute much longer distances. Kids have much more to do at school and with their sports. Finally the fast food choices are on every corner. It is just much easier to pick up something or let everyone microwave their own choice at their own time.
As a child, dinner time at our house was like a poem with a fixed time and meter. Lunch at 11am and dinner at 5pm, not a minute before or a minute after. There was no ordering what one wanted, we ate what was in front of us, no questions ask! I learned early on not to complain, I was told more than once " If you don't like it don't eat it, you will go to bed hungry". I think if we could put the family dinner in the form of an attachment and email it we would.
The gathering of family at meal time is one of the few opportunities for conversation in a noisy world, a place to slow down a day just a little. I sure miss those conversations and sometimes wonder what our family conversations would be like today? More than not I would be trying to tell everyone at the table, everything I knew and trying to convince them I was right.