Once you’re in college, you start to realize that you’re not a kid anymore. Your conversation topics change and you have responsibilities. So where does that leave you when it comes to holiday dinner seating?
My family, like most, has an adult table and a kid table. The adult table is longer and has wine glasses. They usually claim the mother ship food. You know, the big bowl of mashed potatoes, the vegetable assortment, the saucer of gravy, the cranberry sauce, and of course the platter of a full bodied turkey. Those mother ships send out smaller plates that gravitate their way over to the kid’s table, and if you run out, you have to go back to home base. When do you graduate from the sub-plates to the mother ship?
“Well I don’t know because even though I’m about to be 20, I’m still at the kids table…” realizes Pat Leemann.
Margaret Forde says, “I think you graduate from the kid’s table once you have kids yourself. My oldest sister is 22 and she still has to sit at the kids table. So do me and my sisters and my cousins- we’re all above 17.”
Marley Ghizzone agrees, “I’m still at the kid’s table, so I think when you get kids of your own.”
Ricky Schuh thinks, “Kids graduate from the kid table when, after the age of thirteen, they finish all the food on their plate!”
Lauren Rauffer remembers, “I graduated from the kid’s table when I was 18. My uncle seriously wouldn’t let me eat with them until I was about that age. It was a big deal for me being that I am the oldest grandchild.”
Chris Crouch doesn’t think you leave until you want to, or until you’re forced out. “If more kids come into the family they sit there, and you get pushed out!”
My answer? Never. This is not to say that we never grow up, even though I wish it were true. As depressing as it sounds, kids don’t graduate from the kid’s table, the table graduates from them. Eventually the kid’s table just becomes another table where food is distributed. Wine glasses appear in front of place sets once you hit 21 and macaroni and cheese is no longer a viable option if you don’t like what grandma is serving.
Whether you’ve moved on to the adult table, or are still chilling with the kids, just make sure there’s always a basket of biscuits within reach.