Saturday, December 1, 2012

Dining Room Chair

My boys are with MomC this weekend, so I'm writing a sort of archival post, something from the past.

For the longest time, we had trouble getting Middle Son to stay at the table for meals.  He'd come to the table, take a bite or two, then run off again.  It was very frustrating.  One, it made it difficult to eat a family meal, and two, it made it much harder to get Middle to eat enough food.

The first summer post-divorce, MomC's mother and step-father replaced their patio furniture, and they brought me their old set (they like me, and we've stayed on pretty good terms through the divorce).  It was a table, umbrella, and six chairs.  One of the chairs was an outdoor rocker.

On nice summer days, we'd eat dinner outside.  It was pretty out in the backyard, and if Youngest (who was a year old) made a mess on the floor I didn't have to vacuum it up.

I noticed that something unusual was happening.  When Middle Son sat in the rocking chairs, instead of wandering all over the place he stayed at the table.  Which was amazing.  He'd NEVER stayed at the table.  I brought the rocker inside and put it at his place at the table.  He stayed at the table inside.

I ended up buying a pair of outdoor rockers.  I put one at the kitchen table and the other in his room.  Middle is hard on the chairs.  He rocks vigorously and they get metal fatigue in the hinges and break.  In the last 3 1/2 years he's broken four chairs.  When they were on closeout at the end of the summer I bought an extra two-pack, so I have them in boxes in the garage, waiting to be needed.

The chairs have turned out to be a good investment.  We now have family dinners and everyone stays at the table.

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