"Or even, like, discussing what they believe, and why, with their children over dinner."
No! Not That! Sheesh...you mean that families should speak to each other while eating food? I've never heard of such a thing. Get this started, and pretty soon you'll have families discussing things even when they're not having meals. We can't have that!
Mealtime is to be conducted with a pair of bored parents who rarely speak to each other, along with any of their offspring who aren't at a friend's house, on a date, anorexic, or terminally bored.
Said offspring must sit at the table with incredibly bored expressions and pick at their food, heaving great sighs of dissatisfaction before leaving the table to watch porn or work on their MySpace blog on their computer while eating nacho cheese chips out of the bag.
The very idea that discourse should happen while eating has been thoroughly debunked. It is a thing of the past, and must be discarded, along with all other relics of family life from those days.
You posted: you mean that families should speak to each other while eating? ...pretty soon you'll have families discussing things even when they're not having meals. Reply: Lordy, you don't see the half of it. I mean, instead of prayers in school, kids can actually pray at home. They can even pray with their families! Parents can actually organize this, with privacy and conviction. Gosh, what will they think of next? This radical idea offers two important advantages: 1. It conforms to Matthew 6 and avoids a contentious issue about the role of public piety; 2. It gives parents some control over what is <>; adults do not understand that kids/teens can often pray for the most damnable things when left alone.
OH NO!!!!!
It's happening in my very household. When I went to the grocery store the other day my 13 y/o daughter asked "Dad, can I come along?"
And we TALKED! About stuff that MATTERS!!! And she contributed mightily to the discussion.
Where did I go wrong?