Does anyone still........


Play board games (such as Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo)?

Write letters to family/friends (on paper, with pen)?

Have meals round the dining table as a family (whenever possible)?

Insist on children writing "thank you" letters for presents?

Refuse to allow TVs/computers in young children's bedrooms?

Encourage their kids to read - and if possible buy - "real" books?


Based on a Lounge thread that got me thinking whether some families (like mine ) are rather old-fashioned? Or whether some of these practices are still "normal"?

Loads of real books in my house. I usually have about 4 on the go at once! But the last son left at home has just started on the Cave existence, so lots of TV/Computer time in his room rather than reading...just had to realise over the years that it goes with the territory with teenagers. Do insist he eats downstairs when we have others eating with us- even if it's just his own friends. But have to admit to surrendering on his "own" time. He has a long school day & far too much homework imo ( I don't favour homework at all!) & does have a couple of outdoor hobbies, & I console myself with the fact that he allowed me to read to him till he was 11! (tried to keep him young for a bit!)
Sometimes I miss him even when he's "in"...we did play boardgames for years- & he still loves his Lego sometimes ( well he won't let me part with it)

We play board games and during the 40 hour famine we spent all weekend doing jigsaw puzzles as the kids gave up technology.

No letters unfortunately.

Eat together every night, eating main meals in their rooms is forbidden.

Thankyou emails instead of letters.

Both kids have TVs but eldest was 12 and youngest 11 before they had one but games consoles are in main lounge room.

Eldest never a reader but youngest is my nerdy kid and is always reading.

I still write letters to mum as she is more of a technophobe than I ever was.
I sometimes play mahjong with DD and OH, but haven't recently as DD is busy with y12 exams/essays/assignments.
No TV in the bedroom- ours or hers. DD has laptop and stays in her pit.( I've stopped nagging her about the state of the room till exams are over.) I do fetch her out and get her to work at the kitchen table-she usually agrees as it is warmer in the kitchen and the wi-fi connection is better.
I insisted on thank yous for presents up until she was 16, but these days she sends e-mails or phones MIL. (Doesn't get presents from my mum or family, so no need there.)
As OH works late more often than not (9.30 by the time he got home last night) we don't eat together in the week, but we try to at weekends- though OH sometimes has to work then. I try to insist on a proper Sunday dinner, although I have noticed that we seem to be gravitating to the sofa to eat it in front of a film rather than at the table as we used to do, and I don't like it very much as the food is wolfed down without appreciating it, or us having much of a conversation.

I answered in the lounge but I can do it here too :P

We love board and card games in our house. We have on-going tournaments and even though Risk always ends up with Eldestchild doing his Napoleon impression, we like that time.

My dad writes the most lovely letters to me, I reply by blank moonpig cards... (look, my handwriting is awful!)

We always have dinner together... it might not always be at the dining table but it is always together.

I think the kids did the writing thank you notes once. The rellies all looked at them like... 'I'd rather you said thank you in person' so we never did it again.

Kids are all late teens/early 20s now so have pcs wherever they want them (2 are in the study for gaming purposes, one is in his bedroom because the other two kept complaining about him in the study) When they were smaller, they shared a computer that had no internet access - if they wanted that, they had to use mine. Which was in the main room.

They've never had tvs in the bedroom that could be used as a tv. (Eldest had a tv/video player for a while)

All three are, and have always been, voracious readers. Eldest has a kindle but also a bedroom stuffed full of books. That's when he's not raiding mine!

we are only two now but we still eat our meals together at the dinner table.

We are also both avid readers both of 'real' books and on the kindle/ipad.

I don't think saying Thank You is old fashioned, just common courtesy and good manners - as is waiting for people to come off a train/out of a door before barging on, saying sorry when you bump into people, eating with your mouth closed and putting your knife and fork down between mouthfuls and the list goes on.

I cannot stand Christmas Emails But cards seem a thing of the past

Loads of books in our house, dont buy them - very good library here. With reservations you can get anything new for free.

Epic fail on the dining table, overseas friends are always shocked we eat main meals sitting on the floor. We have a lovely dining table, but its usually covered in plans. I guess due to the heat we are always sat on the floor leaning against the sofas, and eat dinner there. People are normally horrified

Fail on the letters; kids are too big to be told to write thank you's except the young spark who does as he's told ; the spare bedroom has the games consoles and desktop but we both have laptops - young spark is now 18 now anyway. He has two TV's in his bedroom - but only really uses the little one at the mo cos it has built in DVD and watches a lot of online content on his laptop. we both have lots of books, and both have library memberships as well - have found that his books are more expensive here (manga fan). We also occasionally play board games / cards - he now beats me at chess more often than I'd like

We are an epic fail on the family meals - there's only two of us and have different tastes - good thing is though, young spark does cook for himself

I think it's more a distinction of class and education than old/new fashioned.

The no computer in your room one is easy when they are age eight and cute. Smug parent fuzzy

Fast forward.... then try wrestling one out of the bedroom of a 6 foot teen

But you have to remember we are in Perf and we ARE 30 years behind the rest of Australia

Not sure about everyone else but in our circle of friends/family all this stuff is how it's done

Play board games (such as Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo)?

Kids still love it every now and again. Personally, I can't stand board games.

Write letters to family/friends (on paper, with pen)?

To those without email, yes. Do prefer Christmas cards to emails though.

Have meals round the dining table as a family (whenever possible)?

Yes, when all kids are present it's always around the table.

Insist on children writing "thank you" letters for presents?

Yes, but it takes longer to get them to as they get older.

Refuse to allow TVs/computers in young children's bedrooms?

I wish I could say yes but school work and social interaction would make it impossible to anywhere else in our house.

Encourage their kids to read - and if possible buy - "real" books?

I used to read to mine and bought books when they were younger but now they're older teens any books I buy are pretty well ignored.

In general I would say yes, it is old fashioned.

Board games tend to be replaced by video games in many cases, difficult for Cluedo to keep a kids attention when they are used to 3D immersive FPS - its more something the adults reminisce over.

Writing, with pen and paper, is dying off - replaced with the immediacy of email, Facebook and text messaging. Might bother with Christmas cards, but even that is dying off I notice. Letters to thank for presents died years ago.

Communal meals still tend to be an aim, but with everyone doing more and more outside activities, it's something of an exception that everyone hits the same availability window at the same time.

TV/computers in kids bedrooms is something of a requirement. Hell, with tablets & phones taking over it hardly counts as distinctively possible, particular when homework tends to require a computer and a net connection.

Reading continues to be a major activity, and websites count as reading if they are using them for research. eBooks make a lot of sense (tablet gets used for more than one task) and its like giving them a library they can carry around. Not sure if schools have caught up with this one yet, but textbooks on eReaders can solve a whole heap of problems. And notetaking onto a tablet gets them ready for college.

In short, its probably best to get the kiddies ready for the world that is and will be, rather than harking back to a world that's not ever going to be again.

Of course, but some of the things you mention, such as allowing kids to prioritise external activities over family interaction at dinner, and allowing them to socialise with fictional characters rather than their families for entertainment is one of the reasons young people today have so many difficulties with socialisation. We have spoken about this before on this forum but one thing I have noticed is that young adults of around 20 seem to have the socialisation skills and attitude of when I was about 14, and this is why. It's possible to prepare your kids for the real world without ceding to their every whim, and they don't require a private internet connection to do their homework. I agree with your other points.