I used to get a little frustrated that our family “sit down” dinners didn’t last nearly as long as it took me to cook them. Everyone seemed to bolt down their dinner in 20 minutes or less to return to the TV or their sport of choice. I wanted more discussion, more sharing—or as my husband would call it, more touchy-feely time. I finally found a way to keep them at the table long enough to have a conversation. It’s a game called The Family Dinner Box of Questions.
I stumbled on it at Judy’s Cottage, a cute Annandale shop with lots of fun games and toys. This is a simple game as there is no game board or pieces to lose. It’s just a box of questions to promote dinner time discussions. We put a question on each dinner plate and then take turns giving our thoughts on the topics.
Sometimes it gets heated, like when the question was: Who do you think has it easier, boys or girls? And the question If your parents misbehaved, how would you punish them? brought some really interesting answers. I begged to be sent to my room.
My favorite time to play this game is when the grandparents visit. Questions like What is your fondest memory of a family summer vacation? and Would you rather travel 50 years forward or 50 years into the past? get them sharing with their grandkids. Both sets of grandparents don’t remember having any family summer vacations and it was interesting to see who wanted to go back 50 years and why. I personally would love to travel 50 years forward because I think we will have teleportation by then….. beam me to Paris for lunch Scotty! If you think I’m off my rocker, tell that to the people on wagon trains who took six months to cross a mountain range we now cross in a couple of hours by plane.
This is also a great game to get to know your kids’ friends and teenagers’ dates. We had the neighbor boy over for dinner a couple of weeks ago when the question came up: What is the grossest or scariest encounter you’ve had with a household pest? I laughed when he described his mom sucking up a mouse in the vacuum then I remembered she brought the vacuum to our house so Mike could get it out and it was really a ham sandwich! (Boy did that sandwich stink, well, kind of like a dead mouse….)
Some of the answers my husband and kids have given to these questions will stick in my memory forever. I feel like I learn something about them every time we play which is really what breaking bread together is all about, spending time with your family and enjoying a “family dinner.”
Family isn’t about sharing the same genetics, that’s being related. Family is when you love someone to death, and you would do anything for them, you trust them, take care of them, and in return they do the same. It’s the type of bond you hold together.
Tanya Bianco
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