Ode to the family dinner

Family dinners are where we give our kids meals, manners, and the measuring of life.  The dinner table is the finishing school, the place where children are civilized. They learn not to talk with their mouth full, to say please and thank you, to keep their elbows off the table. They learn to participate in conversation and sometimes, they learn to listen to other people talk.  They see how adults reason, or don't... ~ Bonny Wolf

As I grew up, we knew that family dinner was at 5:30 p.m. and it was important that we were all there to share the events of the day.  I think my brothers and I grew up respectful and caring, with good manners and appropriate social skills.   But not everyone has the benefit of a two-parent home with rituals.  Not every child has a dinner table.

Many children eat dinner alone and even more eat in front of the television.  Some frequent fast food restaurants, standing in line for a hamburger and then gobbling it down to be on to the next appointment, game or lesson.  What is even sadder, some children have no dinner at all.

This makes me wonder, what might an Optimist Club do to change this situation?  If we are mentors, friends of youth and if we truly want to bring out the best in children, we need to find a way to educate at a family level.  Perhaps we might host family dinner nights instead of pancake breakfasts or chili cook-offs where an Optimist Club member acts as host at a table of children.  I'm not sure if this is enough, but it is a start. 

Let's bring back the great tradition of the family dinner table.  And let's work even harder to be sure that there is food enough for all tables in all homes, and for all children wherever they may be.