Usually this phrase is used in a negative context, but I am having a problem finding the right one...
Eating dinner together is a symptom of a good upbringing, not the cause. And it does not mean that any family that doesn't eat together is doing a poor job of raising their kids.
You could say the same thing about parents who coach little league, or are Band Boosters. It could be a father and son that regularly hunt, or fish. It could be a family discussing books together or a number of things. It is about parents giving their kids time. Parents paying attention to their kids, praising them, punishing them, and knowing about them.
My parents were fortunate enough to both work 9-5 jobs Monday through Friday. We ate together because we were on the same schedule. Next door was a family with three kids around the same age as myself and my sister, their father worked nights as an air traffic controller and their mother was a teacher. They rarely ate together yet turned out fine.
Conversely I friend of mine's family would sit down for dinner then smoke a bowl and get drunk. She did not turn out fine. Dinner had nothing to do with it. The fact that her mother thought it was OK to get high and drunk with a 13 year old girl has something to do with it.
I am 28 and work in the telecomm industry 9-5 as an engineer. My girlfriend is 25 and works retail for Sprint. We don't have kids, but if we did we could not have a normal dinner schedule together. Some days she works 8-5, others she works 1-10. Others it is 10-7. Some weeks she has off Saturday and Sunday, other weeks it is Monday and Thursday. We would make sure that each of us spend time with our children both together and separately. We would show an interest in their lives, and pay attention to what they are doing, which is what is really happening in these studies.
Eating dinner together is a symptom of a good upbringing, not the cause. And it does not mean that any family that doesn't eat together is doing a poor job of raising their kids.
You could say the same thing about parents who coach little league, or are Band Boosters. It could be a father and son that regularly hunt, or fish. It could be a family discussing books together or a number of things. It is about parents giving their kids time. Parents paying attention to their kids, praising them, punishing them, and knowing about them.
My parents were fortunate enough to both work 9-5 jobs Monday through Friday. We ate together because we were on the same schedule. Next door was a family with three kids around the same age as myself and my sister, their father worked nights as an air traffic controller and their mother was a teacher. They rarely ate together yet turned out fine.
Conversely I friend of mine's family would sit down for dinner then smoke a bowl and get drunk. She did not turn out fine. Dinner had nothing to do with it. The fact that her mother thought it was OK to get high and drunk with a 13 year old girl has something to do with it.
I am 28 and work in the telecomm industry 9-5 as an engineer. My girlfriend is 25 and works retail for Sprint. We don't have kids, but if we did we could not have a normal dinner schedule together. Some days she works 8-5, others she works 1-10. Others it is 10-7. Some weeks she has off Saturday and Sunday, other weeks it is Monday and Thursday. We would make sure that each of us spend time with our children both together and separately. We would show an interest in their lives, and pay attention to what they are doing, which is what is really happening in these studies.
