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