Whats a Family Meal?

“Conversations that used to take place face-to-face migrate online.” I haven’t seen something so accurate in this entire book. I go home almost every weekend, usually I attempt to lock myself in my room to avoid my parents… so if my mom wants me, she texts me, if I don’t back within two seconds she starts FaceTiming me. At dinner, my mom will be texting someone my dad will be watching TV that’s in the living room, and usually I’ll watch Netflix on my phone. Family dinners aren’t a formal thing in my house now that my brothers are older and have moved out. It’s probably the biggest reason I miss them, that sense of family time. Whenever my brothers come home, my mom’s in the kitchen making everything under the sun, we all sit, catch up, laugh at each other till all hours of the night.

My brothers live up north, one in New Jersey, one in Long Island. I probably see them probably 4 times a year, if I’m lucky. Facetime, texts, social media are our main source of keeping in touch with each other. Most of my moms and dads side including my grandmother lives in England. I live vicariously with them through social media and through random 5-minute phone calls.

My dad is consumed by his phone. As soon as he gets up, gets off work, sits down on the sofa. he’s watching WhatsApp videos in some group that has videos, gifs, memes in it with other 50 something year old’s. My dad is hard of hearing- although he will NEVER EVER admit it. So, the volume is usually full blast. And of course, he has his laptop out so he can watch episodes of “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and The Beautiful” that he missed during work and he HAS to watch the local 6pm news so he’s educated on what’s going on. All at the same time. I get beyond frustrated with him, mainly because my mom and I can’t even hear each other because he has three things playing super loud and god forbid we raise our voices to hear each other. My dad is dangerously consumed with technology, he gets frustrated when he doesn’t know how to use something or send a text but as long as he can do the simple things, he’s happy.