tradition is the best way? Say it ain't SO!

Some things are just so obvious that it takes a Columbia University study to convince academics its true.  Makes me want to bat my head against the wall, I swear.

Family dinner hour, once an institution in Canadian homes, is becoming a quaint relic among time-starved parents and kids. This according to at least a half-dozen recent reports from top universities, research firms and think-tanks, all of which paint a picture of families in crisis at the dinner table.

Or, more accurately, away from it.

The latest studies -- one from from Harvard Medical School, the other from Columbia University -- cite the family-dinner deficit as a contributing factor in childhood obesity, teen substance abuse, poor academic performance and increased household stress.

We don't do ANY after school activites.  Zero.  Why?  Because the stress level becomes unbearable, obviously, and it screws up supper time.  If kids are getting shipped off to this and that after school and there's no time for a proper meal, what the hell are they supposed to think?  They think they don't matter, and they think what they do doesn't matter either.  Duh.

What is driving all this activity is what I'd like to know.  Maybe people feel their kids are learning jack at school all day and feel the need to make up the shortfall?  Gee, could it be?  Private school vouchers now please!!!!!

The Traditional Phantom