Is Disgustingify a Word?

I heard a statistic not long ago that shocked me.  A radio DJ was talking about the percentage of families that eat dinner together on a regular basis.  Some number of days a week defined regular.  It didn’t shock me enough to actually remember any of the numbers involved.  I only remember the percentage seemed too low to believe.  People are missing out.

There are lots of other surveys and studies – ones with details I also cannot cite – that prove benefits of family meals.  I think one of those is better grades for the kids.  Anyone interested will need to look that up because I’m only claiming the rewards I’ve seen in my personal experience.  It’s clear my kids are smarter because of all the skills they’ve learned over shared meals.

1) Vocabulary – We’ve all learned new words.  Disgustingify means to prepare something for dinner in a way that is not exactly the same as it is normally prepared.  Weeds are any type of lettuce that isn’t iceberg. 

2) Math – Children learn all about fractions and measurements when they cut two pieces of something unpleasant into sixteen bits in order to prove how much gross they are being forced to eat.  That was sixteen bites, not two.

3) Philosophy – We’ve had lengthy discussions about whether or not a food can be literally awful.  What would it mean to be figuratively awful?  Can a subjective adjective be literal?  And then there’s the fact that this word is its own opposite.  Does an awful food taste bad or does it fill you with awe?  One could be filled with awe over the degree of bad, too. 

4) Science – A chemical reaction sometimes occurs when the juice of one food touches another food.  Something formerly edible could become disgustingifyed.  Kids learn about gravity and permeability. 

5) Memory skills – This one is for the parents.  “Everyone” says exercising the brain slows aging.  Night after night, I get to test my memory on which kid likes what and who should get the smallest servings.  This reduces the amount of vocabulary and philosophy I need to practice.  I finished school a long time ago.