I wanted to eat without anyone asking me anything

Dear Delyara, I wanted one full plate of food from first bite to last bite without a question about homework, without someone asking for ketchup, without my husband mentioning tomorrow, without one child talking over the other, without my own phone lighting up like I’m publicly owned. But dinner in this house is never only dinner. It is parenting, listening, remembering, interrupting myself, answering, checking, calming, planning, and somehow also chewing. I stayed at the table. I smiled enough. I ate enough. And still, halfway through, I could feel how hungry I was for silence more than food.