"jmcquown" > wrote in message
.. .
> Dee Randall wrote:
>> "jmcquown" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Goomba38 wrote:
>>>> Jude wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> We have dinner together as a family - me, my BF, and our 9 year old
>>>>> daughter - most nights. House rule is that dinnertime is in the
>>>>> kitchen (don't have a dining room) at the table. Sometimes we have
>>>>> music on but not too loud - I was raised on the belief that 30
>>>>> minutes of socializing at the dinner table was an importtant family
>>>>> activity. No gulping down your food in 3 bites and getting up; we
>>>>> all had to be at the table for half an hour, eat slowly with good
>>>>> manners, and have a chance to talk about our days together.
>>>>
>>>> This is how I was raised also. And NO TV on!!! That is the death to
>>>> conversation. I worry that kids nowadays aren't getting very much of
>>>> this family dinner time and what they're losing down the road?
>>>> Goomba
>>>
>>> Absolutely! NO TV. We didn't have one anywhere near the table, be
>>> it in the
>>> kitchen or the formal dining room. Now, however, without children
>>> in the house, my parents eat at the kitchen table and there is most
>>> definitely a television. I guess after almost 57 years they just
>>> don't have that much to
>>> talk about
>>>
>>> Jill
>>
>> Jumping to old-marrieds rescue! DH and I have so much to talk about
>> we have to interrupt each other to get a word-in. When he goes to CT
>> without me, the cell phone is on fire!
>> Maybe your parents are just getting another topic from the news!
>> Luckily we mostly agree on events on the news, but we still sing to
>> the choir.
>> Dee Dee
>
> Oh, I'm not saying they don't speak. But my parents don't go anywhere and
> they definitely don't have cell phones. They won't even get an answering
> machine for their land line; if we can't reach them we can't reach them,
> which is sometimes frustrating.
>
> My dad is addicted to television. He's got to have it on even if he's
> just
> sitting reading a book. That kinda drives my mom crazy, especially since
> he
> only watches the History Channel and the news.
>
> Jill

This is the same as my f-i-l and deceased m-i-l. I guess it's a good thing
that he has TV, now that she's gone, to keep him occupied. He has an old TV
that is so small I can hardly see it and the picture tube looks like it's
about to go - but won't. We got him one for his bedroom which is so much
better to view, but he prefers the awful one; says the newer one is hard to
see, I think they are basically the same size. People really get
set-in-their ways.
Dee Dee