The Family Table

I always wondered what was it is like to eat dinner with one’s family on a daily basis. According to the commercials on “Nick at Nite”, it makes students more likely to get higher grades and increases quality of life. I do not think that that this is an accurate prediction. I am at the top of my class. Unless one hundreds are not high grades anymore, that is. My quality of life is pretty good. How many teenagers can complain about living in a three-floor mansion with a heated pool and a tennis court? There is not much wrong with my lifestyle. I guess I just wondered what it would be like to eat dinner with my family on a daily basis.1

I know what you are thinking. My parents are cardiac surgeons with the afternoon/ night shift at the local hospital. Unless they call me, I cannot call them because they might be in the middle of a surgery. I get home and I call my sister + let her know Im home. Since I walk by myself, she just wants to make sure I am safe. I have an iPod, so that makes the walk a little bit easier. I don’t know what I would do without my ipod. My walks home were not that eventful. They were generally filled with Stevie Wonder and some wild thoughts. As I ventured home a couple of months ago, I had one of my thoughts reflecting upon the fact that I was dying to have a family dinner every night, just for once. It was time that I finally took some action. As I walked through the front door of my mansion, I wrote my parents a note, hoping that they would see it and actually consider it.2

Mom and Dad,
I want to have dinner with you guys for five days, straight.
‘Tis all. See you in the morning.3

I kind of doubted that it would actually work. Surprisingly, I came home the next day to find my father reading the newspaper on the first floor living room couch. There was an aroma coming from the kitchen that was so sweet that I forgot everything that was on my mind during the previous five minutes. “Hey Cassie.” My dad said. “We got your note. We are going to take the morning shift for the next four days. This way, we can all have dinner as a family.” I was stunned. I did not think that something as simple as a three sentence would have such a strong effect upon my parents. I could not wait for dinner. However, we had to wait for my sister to get home. She had an equal reaction since I decided not to tell her so that she would be surprised. When it was finally dinnertime, I flew down to the dinner table. I was so excited. Once we started to eat, I thought that I was going to die. It was almost as if my parents had never left the hospital. It was “By the way honey, I rescheduled Mr. Johnson’s Humpty Dumpty surgery to ten o’clock AM tomorrow” or “Don’t forget about prepping Mrs. Smith for her heart transplant, sweetie.” It never stopped. “It’s all right”, I thought. “It will be better tomorrow”. It did not get any better. They told us about the different functions of the heart and how important their jobs were. I figured that if it did not get any better the next night, then I would make up an excuse to try to get out of it. The third night that we had dinner together, they dissected chicken wings beforehand and then served my sister and I more chicken. If there is one thing that I cannot stand, it is dissections. I nearly puked in biology lab when I heard we were dissecting frogs. I ate dinner with my family one final time before we went back to “normal life.” I never thought that dinner with my family on a daily basis could be so boring.4

I guess I was wrong. The commercials on “Nick at Nite” did make any sense whatsoever. I almost started to feel bad for people that actually ate dinner with their families every night. I look back at when I ate with my family for just four evenings and it was so dull. I realize something when I look back at my experience.  I also see myself very happy and feeling accomplished for all I’ve done. I united my family for four nights and learned that propaganda; such as “Nick at Nite” commercials are not always correct. It was a lesson that I will never forget. 5