Thank you all for your input. I genuinely appreciate it, especially from those of you who have been there and done that.
I am curious about how you would handle the following:
My son would like to be excused from our traditional Friday night dinner, since there is some ritual involved. But he would still like to eat the traditional food that I work so hard to make. Just in another room while the rest of us sit at the dining room table. Am I being childish when I tell him that he does not need to join us, but that he cannot share in the traditional Jewish food which I make only because it is the Sabbath? I guess I resent having him take advantage of the effort I put in, without his being willing to sit with us at the same table.
Once again, honest answers are appreciated.
Not just no, but hells no. (I know, I don't have a teenager.) I would require him to sit with the family. That is absolutely ridiculous and he is being childish.
