The Decline of the American Family

I saw a commercial this morning that really upset me. Let me paint a mental picture for you. A teenager boy calls his mother to ask if he can eat dinner at his friend's house. She doesn't believe him and asks to speak to the friend's mom. At this point I am thinking that this is a public service announcement to keep an eye on your children. The friend's mom gets on the phone and confirms the boy is there and is going to sit down to a family dinner. Now I'm let in on the fact that this is a commercial for fast food (I think it was KFC) and that the boy's mom is just stunned that a family is going to have dinner together.

Oh my frigging God!!!!

What is this? Is this commonplace???? Is it odd for a family to sit together at night, eat dinner and discuss their lives???? My family did this every night when we all lived together. That is how we kept in touch with each other and laughed together. That is where we discussed our problems or talked about things that were going on in the world.

If this is an odd occurance, maybe it explains phenomena that I have never been able to comprehend. Such as those two boys as those 2 boys at Columbine High School...I saw in a documentary that one of them spent a weekend in his garage building pipe bombs. I never understood this. My mother was never in my face, but she took an interest in my life and if I had at any point spent a weekend in the family garage, she would have wondered what I was doing and been in there to have a look.

Is the problem that no one has time to take an interest in their children? We live in a world where both parents work and everyone is rushing around all the time...maybe no one has the time to "mind the store" so to speak.

I don't know. I have no answers...just supposition.

And I would love to continue with this thought, but it's almost 7:30 and my doggie has a date with the Terrier upstairs. Yes, my dog has a boyfriend. His name is Bernie and he's 12. They've walked together everynight at 7:30 for about three years.