Families

So tonight is "Ladies' Night" on the T.V. show Wipe Out. Though not my first choice in television, I am completely entertained. On my right is my six-year-old daughter, curled up on my husband's lap. In front of me, my 10-year-old sits drinking a soda for dinner, after just returning home from soccer practice. My daughter is extra excited because she always routes for the girls, more specifically, the pretty girls. My son and husband are equally engaged.

As I watch, it occurs to me that we are bonding. And I wonder: is it such a sad state of affairs that it takes a show like Wipe Out, where people make complete fools of themselves, for the modern family to bond? It is hard to NOT to find funny a girl calling herself the "Naughty Baker" trying to cross the scarecrow planks, while getting plowed-over by the rug burner and being splattered by raw eggs and milk. Regardless of the subject, we are laughing together. And for a family who is pulled a several different directions on any given day of the week, anything together is fantastic.

School starts next week. The kids are about to start 2nd and 5th grades. They have grown so much over the summer. Matured so much. Realizing how fast their childhood is fleeting by, I crave time with them these days. Preferably, family bonding around the dinner table. However, fast food around the dinner table is just not quite the same as sharing something home-cooked, I suppose. Since, I have not opted to cook all that much as of late, the dinner table sits empty, mostly.

Needless to say, with school starting, I do not see our schedule subsiding any time soon. The lazy summer days will soon give way to a routine of soccer practice, dance lessons, hectic work schedules and lunch dates. So I guess I will take family bonding time where I can get it. Even if it means watching Fly Girl dominating the Wipe Out Zone at a tremendous cruising altitude.