“Well, if your mother’s willing, it might be possible.”
“Mom, you gotta go. It’s so neat! There’s this one part where...”
That’s the way meals should be. But what if Peter and Alicia start
fighting? They will both be counted. In our original scene, it would go
something like this:
Peter: “But I don’t like any of it.”
Mom: “OK, if you don’t finish, there will be no dessert and
nothing else to eat before bed. Do you understand?”
Alicia: “I like what we’re having.”
Peter: “Oh, shut up!”
Mom: “That’s 1 for each of you.”
Key ConceptWho says you have to eat dinner together every single night of the year?
Consider having some special nights where each person eats wherever she
wishes. Or—better yet—have some nights when one parent takes one child out
to eat. It’s different and it’s fun!Some of you may wonder why Alicia should be counted. All she
did was say, “I like what we’re having.” Can you guess the answer? It
was all in her rose-colored but competitive timing.
The Divide-and-Conquer Routine
Many parents seem to feel that there is a federal law dictating that