What does breakfast in our house look like?

First of all, breakfast is a meal where we all take time to sit and be together before beginning our busy day.  My husband, because of his work schedule, is frequently not with us for mealtimes, but otherwise, whoever is home is there.  It’s officially supposed to start at 8:30, but that doesn’t always happen, like today (8:50).  I don’t make fancy meals – today breakfast was polenta, cottage cheese, and watermelon – but it’s always something filling and nutritious.  To me, mealtimes are an opportunity to connect with the entire family while everyone eats, not a time to eat and happen to speak to each other.  The focus isn’t on the food, but on our time together. 

Today my oldest son read from a book about prayer and it led us to a discussion about the the importance of establishing a deep emotional connection with G-d, and the purpose of difficulties in helping us build that connection.    This is a book our family chose to read together at each meal, since it has daily selections.  My husband shared a true story that illustrated the importance of a connection, not just getting what you want, that illustrated that we desire connection more than just stuff (a rich man gave his 18 year old son a credit card with no limit, and told him not to contact him anymore since his new wife didn’t want the kid in their life).  Then we talked about how this ties into the law of attraction, what the seeming contradictions are, and how the concepts fit together.  We always try to share some Torah thoughts (sorry, can’t think of a good translation for that) at each meal.  Sometimes it’s quicker, sometimes it leads to a much longer discussion. 

When we talk, it’s not us lecturing the kids.  It’s a discussion – someone will bring up a topic, and we all share thoughts on it.  If someone doesn’t have anything to say, that’s fine, too.  It’s pretty informal and relaxed. 

Then we talked about the video most of us watched last night, what we liked and why we liked it.  This ended up being a discussion of family values and how hard it is to find videos that support that. 

As the meal wound down (breakfast is officially 30 minutes, but today it was closer to 40 minutes), we give the kids a quick reminder of what they need to do after they leave the table.  That means their after breakfast chores, and what they need to do as far as their academic work. Sometimes I’ll ask each child to tell me what they’re going to be doing, and how they’re going to do it, so I know what their plans are.  If we have something outside of our regular routine planned for the day, I’ll go over the plans for the day regarding that outing or activity.  On regular days, it’s just a quick run down of what we’ll be doing that takes about two minutes. 

Then we do a quick clean up (bathrooms, laundry, sweeping, dishes) so we can move on to the next part of our day in a pleasant environment.

Avivah