Poll: Thanksgiving dinner "kids table". Yea or Nay

[trackfan]

For a large family Thanksgiving dinner, when there are a lot of non-adults, should the kids be sat at a separate table?

[Left Is Write]

1. I suppose it depends on the family.

I liked sitting at the children's table when I was a kid. We pretended we were the Addams Family, and we gave the food all kinds of weird names like eye of newt and pickled yak's nose. We got to giggle all through the meal and pretend we were eating all this wonderful disgusting stuff, and we didn't have to listen to the painfully boring adult talk.

[LeftyMom]

2. No, but we never did any such thing in my family.

Kids were expected to eat and behave themselves, then excused from the table when thier plate was done.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. With one caveat--there should be an upper age limit

My grandmother, who lived to be 100, liked to host big family gatherings with 50 people or so.

At the last Thanksgiving dinner that she hosted, when she was somewhere in her mid seventies, she had her generation and much of my mother's generation at the main table. However, the youngest members of my mother's generation, who were in their thirties at the time, were seated at the kids' table.

A separate table wouldn't have been bad--the main table was only so large--but this one was definitely the kids' table, and they weren't the parents of any of the kids.

The adults relegated there started teasing my grandmother about how they were going to make her sit at the kids' table when she came to their house.

But this was my grandmother, who when she was about 90 referred to her 65-year-old nephew as "a nice boy."

[Left Is Write]

5. I agree with you there...

anyone seated at the "children's table" should actually BE a child or the parent of a child who may need help.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. "No" vote

I just don't happen to bear any scars.

Children are little people. That should come as no shock to the "grown-ups." Seat 'em with the whole bunch. If more than one table is involved, it shouldn't be a kiddie ghetto.

Isolated children grow up to be Repiglicans.

Welcome them to the tribe.

:popcorn:

On Edit: I can't typ.

[Left Is Write]

6. They do?

Isolated children grow up to be Repiglicans.

I noted above that I liked sitting at the children's table at large family gatherings. As near as I could tell, my siblings and cousins enjoyed it too.

I have never been anything even remotely resembling a Republican.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

9. Glad for you

But I despise the authoritarianism of a "place" for children.

Our kids have always had full family status, with adults seated around them. Blew my mind the first time I watched one of my kids engage a septugenarian in full conversation while at the same time maintaining good table manners. It was affirming and I later commended the kids. It meant something to them.

We maintain the notion that the littlest should be nearest the oldest as often as possible. They maintain the freshest memories for the potentially longest times. Having a Grandfather who served in the Second World War is conversation you can't get at the kiddie table.

I'm glad you didn't come to be a Repiglican, Lefty. We count our blessings. :hug:

[Left Is Write]

12. It's unlikely I would have. I was raised by Democrats.

I have lots of happy memories of getting reacquainted with my cousins, second cousins, and my godparents' children over dinner. We had a children's table not because we had authoritarian parents who believed in a "place" for the children, but because we had parents who understood the need for kids to be kids and enjoy each other.

The experience never deprived me of a close relationship with my grandparents or from listening to them tell stories.



edited. I do know how to spell.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

16. Then good.

I remember going "Home for Thanksgiving" with a girl in college and seeing my first "childrens' table."

I was appalled, or, barring that, a little surprised.

I meant no insult to you, LeftWrite.

[Kali]

7. I come froma typical dysfunctional family - my scars are from

sitting together too much - loved the kids table then - wish I could sit there now!!!!

(that is when we all force ourselves together, this year I seem to be safe, everybody is doing their own thing)

[hickman1937]

8. Other.

There was always a "kids" table at my parents house because the dining room wasn't big enough. When my big brother took over holidays he kept the tradition. The kids(ages 5-26) are having more fun at their table now, and refuse to get stuck at the adults table. Word to the wise.

[NMMNG]

10. I didn't vote

I don't see anything inherently wrong with a children's table, but it's not because I think the kids will make the dinner "unbearable" for the adults. In my family the kids were seated at a separate table, but that table was about 2 feet from the main table so weren't exactly ostracized. In a way it was fun to not be sitting directly with them anyway, as we could talk amongst ourselves and not have people "shushing" us the whole time.

[Left Is Write]

13. I didn't vote either, and that's why.

Neither option fit my opinion.

[tigereye]

11. our family wasn't really big enough for a kid's table

My son is the only kid on my and my h's sides, so he'd be eating alone and that wouldn't be good... :)

My husband said it was fun when he was a kid. Then it got boring, and then the grown-up table was boring!

[qnr]

14. NO! If I'm not having a Thanksgiving dinner, then some random kids

certainly aren't going to have one.

[nashbridges]

15. I still eat at the kids table

I loved it as a kid, and I like it even better at 32!

[BamaGirl]

17. We always have a couple of tables but it isn't because anyone's a brat

(tho some are lol). There's just not enough for everyone at one table, and the kids would rather sit together. I'm not scarred and neither are my kids. I didn't vote. ;)

[Straight Shooter]

18. Not because the brats are "unbearable," but maybe they like it.

I actually enjoyed being with kids close to my age at large gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. By the time I was around 12, though, I wanted to sit and share with the so-called grown-ups.

[clyrc]

19. I don't have much of a choice

limited room at the table means the kids actually sit on the couch, but I did that sometimes when I was growing up and I didn't mind. If I had a huge table, though, the kids would definitely sit with the adults.

[AntiCoup2K4]

20. I think I was sitting at the "kids table" into my early 30's

Probably would be still, except the thanksgiving crowd has thinned out, between grandparents passing away and siblings moving to other states.

I only hated the kids table when the physical table itself was too short, considering I'm 6 ft 6" and can't find a lot of leg room under a folding card table.