There is no place I’d rather be on Friday mornings than at the kitchen table with my family. We wake up extra early, we create a million extra dishes and the house smells like a truck stop.Fancy breakfast is the highlight of our week.
Until two years ago, I was under the impression that we were a horrible family because we rarely sat down for dinner altogether. Countless moms, books and shows portrayed busy families with much to do, that coul
d always find time to sit down for hours around the dinner table. I was at a loss on how that was even possible. Somehow I was failing! I was positive my kids would need extensive therapy due to the fact that we didn’t eat dinner together every single day of the week.
We have very active kids who are involved in various sports and clubs. We ourselves are involved in extracurricular activities. The four of us are rarely all home at the same time until about 8 p.m. Which as I get older, is far too late to eat dinner. We were averaging maybe once a week around the dinner table at best. How could this be? How was I going to fix it?
Then, along came a wonderful woman in my morning bible study who simply said, “Why does it have to be dinner that you all eat together?” WHAT? I don’t know! The thought never crossed my mind that there could be other meals we ate with one another. So, thus began the tradition of Fancy Breakfast! Every Friday, no matter what (even days off from school) we all wake up early, set out the fine china (you know, that stuff you’ve never used), and we feast together! Pancakes and waffles made from scratch, eggs, sausage, bacon, fruit, the works! It has become our favorite guaranteed family meal.
It’s the only day of the week that I don’t have to drag my kids out of bed.
We reflect on the week, gear up for the weekend and just spend quality time laughing together. No matter where the week takes us, we all know that Friday morning we meet at the table.
So if you’re struggling to carve out family time, I challenge you to think about it from another angle. It doesn’t have to fall into the norm.
