Originally posted by Lillycat
okay, pcb, this one is for you!!! we walked home from school for lunch everyday....spent our lunchtime helping my mother do the wash for a large family....she putting it all through a wringer washer, us,. hanging it all outside on the washlines. no automatic washer, no automatic dryer. when we finished we walked back to school for the afternoon. we alllllll sat down to dinner together....we also always had a dessert after our meal. (funny what you remember eh?) we all had chores....after dinner i washed the dishes, my sister dried....no automatic dishwashers. we didnt have a t.v., so no time spent at that. we played outside after dinner/chores....hide and seek, kick the can, 4-square, jump rope, marbles, etc., etc. we did have a radio tho, and after chores/homework was done we could choose our favorite program and listen to the radio for awhile. we could read for awhile after we went to bed until lights out. i had a flashlight and continued to read long after lights out hiding w/ the flashlight reading, under the blankets......i still dearly love to read up to this day. i could go on and on, but think this is enough. raising my own children we had automatic everything..,..also t.v.....kids sooo busy playing sports dinnertime wasnt everything i wanted it to be......too many times not together. i think it is wonderful that your family honors a family dinnertime. i truly believe that is very important and at the heart of family life. BUT, all in all, i turned out alright and also, my kids turned out alright.....so what is the lesson here? (see, the schoolteacher always comes out) neither generation is really better or worse, just different......bottom line, pcb....i still think this is a great thread! Thanks!!! lillycat
Wow! Your life was so different from our's! You listened the the radio in the evening? I surf PT when everything's done. He he he!

One thing is similar though. I remember my dad picking up my brother and I from school to eat lunch at home when we were very young.....in our first years of school. I don't remember why they did that, but we used to go home for lunch everyday, and then after eating, we would go back to school. My dad still comes home for lunch from work, so we even eat lunch together most of the time. Dinner is always eaten as a family though. Even if I'm not hungry and don't want to eat, I will still go and sit at the table, just to chat with the rest of the family. My mom also cooks dinner everyday, which is something I love, because my mom cooks sooooooo good! Everyone loves her cooking. A lot of my friends survive on canned food because their moms don't cook anymore. I don't think this is something I will change either. I will cook for my family. I'd want them to eat healthy, and the best way to ensure that is by making your own meals, because you know what you put in it.

Just NO IRONING!