Family Dinner At The Table {An Experiment In Normality}

     I don't know how you were raised but when I was growing up the dinner table was not something we used to eat at.  We did our homework there, we stacked insane amounts of clutter there, we even played poker on occasion but very rarely did we sit down leave it to beaver style & eat.  It's something that my wife & I have always talked about is a strong tool for a family to use BUT, as I'm sure some of you have found as well, its not as easy as June Cleaver made it seem & lets face it the Brady family had a freakin' maid!  My family could sit down to a home cooked meal every night at the dinner table if Alice was serving it up to us & doing the dishes too!  Well, we started doing it! Those of you who are reading & already do this on a regular basis that's awesome! Now that we have started doing it I really do see how great it is. We turn off the TV, sit around the table & talk about how school went or things we did today. Granted, when 4 of us had steak last night Jayden had chicken nuggets but you pick your battles! We are all at the same table & that's a big deal. 
     Tonight as we are eating we told the boys about how it's not good manners to put your elbows on the table. After that we spent a lot of time being schooled on manners from Jayden: 

When you are eating it's best to take small bites so you don't choke.

It's not good to talk with your mouth full.



PS: How does a room get this bad
in a matter of a few hours!! It's clean
& then BAM it's anarchy!



     Does anyone else's aspie get touched off by little things like this? As in, you say something & he elaborates or talks about that thing for.....ever!  I know & have been neck deep in a several hour long conversation with an aspie about a special interest but sometimes he can know something about what you are talking about & feel the need to expound on it further....& further....& further.....&...you get the picture. Actually sometimes it's not even something he knows about, for example he can see something on, lets say a cartoon, & take that for fact sometimes. An example is when he asked for blueprints {he LOVES blueprints & schematics} for a Shrink Ray. I explained to him that there is no such thing & though it said "I know" I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't. One of those things where I get lost somewhere between Asperger's & just being an 8 year old boy. Maybe sometimes it's a combination of both I guess.

     I guess the running theme is, with the family dinner, is we are really trying to put a little less infuses on work & more on US as a family! Some of the things I read about the subject is pretty funny & at times I wonder if the people talking about what makes a kid turn out to be a good person or what makes a good family even has kids! I don't know where they live but we have bills to pay, doctors to see, teachers to meet, & all kinds of other stuff that they never told me about in health class when we learned about birth control & parenthood!!  It's taken me this long {30 years old in April :(} to find out that while I really liked the way I grew up & I had this great idea of how I wanted to raise my kids all of that kinda has to go out the window so you can play the hand your are dealt. Doesn't mean you gave up on anything or even failed, just found a better way to do it. Sorry for the deep thoughts, jack handy style, but with me getting a new job at a really great hospital & with us looking into me heading back to school to bridge from EMS to Nursing it's put us both in "Look at your life" mode! {but in a good way!}