I don’t think of my family as particularly edgy. According to a recent article in
The New York Times,
"Quality Time, Redefined" by Alex Williams, though, the edge on which we apparently live is rather cutting. Because sometimes we watch TV together.
I wrote last summer about research and public dialogue claims of the family dinner-as-panacea (the posts are
here and
here). These claims suggest that the sit-down family dinner promises to solve a multitude of adolescent and teen social problems.
While there are some interesting findings worth checking out, I am leery of yet another solution that is placed in mothers’ laps. The research doesn’t specifically
say moms are the answer, but it is moms who are most likely to carry the burden of meal preparation, and the guilt about how they do it or don’t. In general, I do not tend to join the chorus of those who lament the ways that family interaction is morphing. I don’t do much in the way of “back in the good old days” ever, really; the good old days weren’t all good, no matter which days you’re talking about, and change is the only constant in this life anyway so I don’t know why we resist it so mightily. I mean, please.
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Photo credit: Two Girl Friends by Vera Kratochvil
