Dad Sprints Home for Dinner

How His Life Has Changed

Fast Food chains like KFC are marketing the "return" of the family meal, as in take-out, but that's counterproductive to what you were trying to do, right?
I think that's right. They make the food for you but are they making it possible to sit down and eat it together? I know that's what happened in my house. If we order pizza chances are we're not going to eat the pizza at the table. With my experiment it was literally about having my daughter dip her hands in flour and making gnocchi and making my son clean the table. We still have struggles with it, but it's a good opportunity to sit them down and ask, hey, tell us about what's going on in your life.

Tell me about the family meal as it relates to your gender role in your own marriage.
My wife and I fell in love making food and we never really wanted that Leave It to Beaver life where I'm working and she's cooking. This isn't what I thought our marriage was going to be. I don't like being the guy who earns the money and doesn't know what's going on in my family's lives.

A lot has changed then?
Oh, yes. One of the happiest moments was when Lulu turned to me and said, Dad what are we having for dinner? That changed everything for me. She saw me that way after never seeing me that way. Now she routinely asks me that.

Originally published on LHJ.com, June 2007.