OLD habits die hard. At our house we eat round a big kitchen table, and until recently I thought everyone else did.

But I've read a survey saying a large percentage don't do that, and instead eat their meals balanced on their knees in front of the television.

And furthermore, according to this survey, they probably all eat different meals.

I recall when my lads were little, one of them saying "I don't want that, I want beans on toast."

John immediately said "Hey. What do you think this is, a cafe? You'll eat what your mum's made" and that was and still is the way it is.

I wonder, if families don't sit down together for meals, when do they chat and discuss the day?

The problem is that food and drink are such big pleasures, so it's no wonder we find it so difficult to lose weight.

I once went to my doctor for something to help me lose a pound or two.

He said "I'll give you a few pills, they will stop you feeling hungry."

I replied "But it's nothing to do with hunger, I just like eating."

So there is just no hope for me I'm afraid.

And if I'm honest I can't recall the last time I felt really hungry, peckish yes, but real hunger?

I hope real hunger is something none of us in this country should ever have to feel.

We of a slightly more mature age appear to have kept ourselves reasonably fit.

Yes we might be a little wider round the waist, but it seems there aren't as many of us who are as obese as the younger ones.

Yet our diets as kids could hardly be called fat free.

Fried bread, toast and dripping, suet dumplings, suet puddings, spud pie, loads of bread were hardly health foods.

Oh how I loved Thursdays mum's baking day.

I'd come home from school and the back kitchen table was full of big barmcakes, buns and of course sad cake.

Our tea would be fat chips on one of the barmcakes plastered with butter so much so that it ran down your chin. Magic!

Perhaps we ran the calories off playing rounders, hopscotch, tig and never going in until it went dark, and I suppose the walking to and from school would have helped.

I wonder, is all this talk about child molestation making our children prisoners?

Most offences of that nature are usually from within the immediate family.

Life is full of dangers, smothering children doesn't protect them, just postpones the day when they have to go out and fend for themselves.

You just have to prepare them as best you can and pray that it's enough.

Once you have children you are never ever free again.

The concern, worry, the aggravation, but mainly the love and pleasure, are always with you.

Now I'm going away to have a little cry.

Till next week.