PELHAM — Lisa Brown was driving to work one morning when she started thinking about how hard it was to find time to sit down with her two children and just talk.
The dinner table had always been a place for them to discuss their day, but as her children got older and their lives became busier, their time at the dinner table dwindled. Brown started wondering how she could rekindle the important tradition.
With help from her 12-year-old son, Joey, and 9-year-old daughter, Sarah, Brown created MatChats — placemats featuring a series of topics and questions to get the whole family talking around the dinner table. Topics for discussion include everything from friendship and reflection to health and work.
For instance, the questions about friendship include, "What characteristics do you look for when choosing a friend?" and "If you are feeling blue, who do you want to be with you? Why?"
"We all have to eat, but I don't think we sit around as often as we would like to and talk with one another as a family," Brown said. "At dinner time, you have a captive audience. You are not fighting with the TV and cell phone for your child's attention. It feels natural to sit, relax and talk."
One night, when her family wasn't using the placemats, Brown and her son found themselves arguing at the dinner table.
"In the middle of it, Sarah, my daughter, actually said, 'Let's get some of those mats out and get this family talking positively,'" Brown recalled. "If we had it on video, it would have been a great commercial. We have been using them since then."
Brown, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and a widow, said she hopes her placemats catch on. They went on sale last month at Welles Emporium on Merrimack Street in Lowell, Mass., and Hillside Country Store and Deli on Mammoth Road in Pelham. They are also available online at www.matchats.com.
"It's a great idea," said Linda Williams, owner of Welles Emporium. "They're packaged very nicely. We've sold a couple. It takes awhile for a new product like this to be grasped by the public."
Each set of eight placemats costs $14.95.
Brown's husband, Joe, an inventor, died four years ago. Brown said she gained the confidence needed to create and market MatChats by marketing one of his inventions, a plumbing device, after his death.
"The experience of losing my husband and the children losing their father obviously affected us tremendously," she said. "However, I saw it as an opportunity to teach my children how to cope with loss and accept life on life's terms."
Brown, 43, grew up in Lowell and has lived in Pelham for 14 years. She earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from Northeastern University in Boston and a master's degree in psychiatric nursing from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
