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Multi-Generational Dining Can Be Humerous

I am a single mother living with my teenage son and elderly mother. Although this sounds like strange living arrangements, I feel blessed that I can share my life with both of them each day.

I can tell you that living in a multi-generational household certainly can keep one laughing. Sitting around the dinner table having a conversation can become very humorous as my mother and son do not speak the same language.

My son is very computer savvy, building his own computer from scratch and hosting all night computer LAN parties. He is the first one to know any technology related news by spending a good deal of time each night surfing the web for the latest technology information.

On the flip side, my mother still refers to the internet as some mythical place that it just out of her reach. There is a sound of awe in her voice as she speaks of the computer as a living thing to be respected and revered.

As they stare at each other across the table trying to gain a moment of understand from what each other is saying, the conversation flips back and forth like a ping-pong match.
Each one of them picking up a bit of conversation and wanting to show their triumph by throwing in a sentence or two that they think is in keeping with the current conversation, but in most cases simply moves the conversation in a completely opposite direction.

My job in these settings during the match is to continually steer conversations back to the original topic with a well chosen phrase to the original participant and then help pick up with the new topic under discussion, often times by giving a general definition of the topic to the entire group so that we can all start out on the same page again. To a dinner guest, this interesting form of dialog seems very peculiar, but to me it is just another nightly dinner.

I sit in the middle of the ping-pong match and laugh to my self because without knowing it, my mother is teaching my son the wisdom of the world, and my son is keeping my mother young despite her years. And there I sit in the middle enjoying the time that I am able to spend with each of them with a smile on my face.