Do you do this at your home? Does everyone sit at the same seat around the dinner table every night? I wonder why that is.
Since we moved into this house, we’ve all seated ourselves at the kitchen table in the same seats. Part of the seating seems to be practicality - Berta sits closest to the kitchen, since she’s most often the one making dinner and having to run back and forth to get things. Me sitting opposite her seems natural to that, and the kids on either side, with Abby (being the elder of 3 years) sitting on her preferred side; the side near the windows, not looking out them into the sun in the evening.
One of the things I was looking forward to when we moved in was the crafty positioning of our TV on a swing arm. Our kitchen is open to the family room, and with the TV mounted on the wall on this large swing arm, it would be possible to orient the TV for viewing at the kitchen table. Genius.
Of course, all of this fails since Berta faces the family room. Meaning, if you’ve been paying attention, that I am the only person facing away from the TV I’ve so carefully orchestrated the positioning of. Sure, sure, watching TV during family dinner time, blah blah… Dinner is not the only meal, not every dinner conversation is as riveting as all that, and sometimes it’s just nice to veg out. I keep kidding about mounting a TV under the kitchen cabinets, but don’t think I haven’t priced them a couple of times already.
When I was growing up, we all had our own “assigned” seats too. My seat then would have been the equivalent of where Abby is now, come to think of it. It had easy access to the door, for running outside after dinner. At least, that was my logic for choosing that seat.
I’m sitting at the kitchen table writing this right now, in Riley’s seat looking out the windows to the back yard, in full view of CNN on the family room TV. I think we might soon trade dinner seats.
