The Simple Dinner Table Game That Will Have Everyone Laughing
If your family is like mine, your dinner time with one another is the only time you spend together as a family all day. We may be ripping, running and chaotic most days out of the week but more often than not, we make the time to sit and have our last meal of the day, together. We may just be eating drive-thru fried chicken after the football game or Old El Paso tacos, but we do it as a family in our own kitchen. Some nights, though, we find ourselves asking why we even bother. There’s always at least one person at the table in a foul mood, one person that is intentionally annoying another, and one that doesn’t “like it.” We may stick to our dinner time ritual religiously but 99% of the time it is not your picture-perfect evening.
One thing about our family is we like our “spots” – in the car, on the couch and especially at the dinner table. If someone sat in another person’s seat it would upset the “vibe.” We are creatures of habit and have formed this ideal by pure accident and now it is the gospel.
A few nights ago we were waiting on the bread to finish baking in the oven so we could chow down on my husband’s famous spaghetti while my oldest daughter was sitting in a different chair writing in her notebook. It was a Sunday night so I was hoping to start the week off on a positive note with some fun. I looked around and the idea quite literally lit up in my brain like a light bulb (because just then the timer had beeped signaling the bread being finished).
So here’s what we did: we each wrote our names on a tiny piece of paper and drew a name from a bowl.
Whomever’s name you drew, that is where you had to sit and that is who you impersonated through the entire dinner. My first thought was that it was either going to end in complete disaster with someone storming out of the room or with belly aching laughter. Luckily for me, it was the second option.
My youngest daughter (3) drew my husband which was adorable – she impersonated his deep, commanding voice and even tried to eat as much as he did. My middle child (6) drew her younger sister which she enjoyed way too much. My oldest daughter drew our middle daughter (6) which she also took pleasure in because she got to imitate all of the “annoying” things that her younger sister does to her. My husband drew my oldest daughter so he played his role to the T working the moody teenager angle. I drew myself which I was completely fine with because I got so much pleasure out of watching them imitate, mock and playfully insult one another.
To some, this may seem juvenile or silly but honestly, that’s kind of the point!
Too many days our lives are serious, hectic, complicated and commanding.
We also tend to forget that our little ones feel stress and anxiety as well. We have adopted this tradition on days that seem like they’ve been a little heavy for everyone. It is always sure to lighten the mood and put a smile on our faces. It surely may not solve any problems but it’s a simple way to bond as a family that has no “time” out of the day to facilitate said bonding.
