Chapter 4

I found it interesting that Mr. Miller’s answer to why this lifestyle was saving his children. It can definitely be seen even from my childhood to the childhood of my younger brothers and sisters how things have changed. When I was younger, it was unheard of for us not to have dinner as a family. It was a time for everyone to take some part in the preparation, whether it be setting the table or getting the drinks ready. Meal time was not a time for TV, but a time for a recap on everyone busy day and events that were coming up or had taken place. I thought I must have had the cruelest parents in the whole world, because they would not let us have video games, TVs or phones were not permitted in our bedrooms, and everyone had weekly chores. Coming from a wealthy community this was unheard of and we certainly felt deprived. Now that I am older I miss the days when we all went to park together with the dog or went canoeing in the river. When I go back home to visit I find now that everyone is on their own schedule. Those long lost rules that once bound us together are non existent. Not only do game systems appear in every room where there is a TV, four computers often allow for the entire family to be dispersed and never see each other one roof. As my siblings are reaching the driving age, there are days my mom says my brother simply just doesn’t come home. Because there is no longer a requirement that everyone make it to the dinner table together each of them get tangled up in their busy lives of friends, socialization, and drama. The bonds of closeness are widening as the years go by. Is this a result of a change in society as a whole or does it simply come with age, the need to become more independent? Has technology alone driven this move away from the family as a whole, or is it the need for the reliance of one’s self rather than interdependence?