Most families in this day in age don't really know each other. Sure, your kids may call you mom and dad, but what else? In most families, both parents have to work just to make ends meet to put food on their tables, clothes on their bodies, and to pay for your heat and lights. In older times, you heated with wood and used candles you made for light. Also, in these times the wife stayed home and raised the kids. To get to work you rode a horse or a donkey. You planted your own vegetables and raised your own chickens and cows.



Now, in our modern days, these kinds of things are not heard of. Most upper class people, mainly children, have never seen a chicken or know where an egg comes from. If you were to ask them where an egg came from, most of the time they will tell you that an egg comes from a grocery store. Sometimes these same children can't tell the difference between a cow and a bull or a horse and a mule.

We need to get the fire back in family. Set a time when the family can just get together and read. Or, as they get older, set aside one night a week for everyone to be together when they can help with dinner. Have them pick out what to have for dinner.

This is to be a fun and safe time, so start out easy. This would be called "fun food" or "fun night". Keep it simple so that the kids don't get tired of this idea, and let them think it was all their idea. Each one can pick out an item and then let him or her make it. You might want to help them if they are too little.

They should also be told that they will be helping to clean up afterwards. Bring out the cookbooks, pens, and paper. Let them give you a list ahead of time so you can get these items from the grocery store. The ideas will be endless, and the kids will also learn to cook. This will help them when they move out on their own. It will make them move from being a simple or normal kid to someone that really enjoys and loves to cook.

Parents, you really need to learn to influence these young minds. Everybody can really have fun. To keep the fire on throughout the evening, watch a special movie that the whole family can watch after dinner. Lift their bedtime schedule, and just let them stay up as late as they want. Let them sleep in the living room or den, if that is where the television is. Remember that this is to help bring fire back into the family unit.