Family Life: Why family meal time is important

Family meal time

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I love meal times especially dinner time. Apart from the fact that my wife cooks good food, spending it with the entire family every meal really completes my day.

In today’s busy schedule where both parents work and usually gets home late and misses family meals, multitudes of opportunities are missed-out whenever we parents fail to dine together. Many families often see meals as just eating together with shallow chit-chatting but there is really more to it than just that.

Seeing the critical importance of meal time with the family, my wife and I made an agreement on how we manage our schedules, especially at night, so as not to miss our meal time with the kids. Since we, as a couple, have other commitments at our local church in the evening; we agreed only to skip dinner at home once per week at most. If there are other evening schedules that we must attend, we either dine early at home or bring the kids to the venue (when allowable) and dine together there.

Below are some of my personal inputs why sharing meal times together should be given the highest priority by every member of the family in any given time.

1. Relieves stress.

Seeing and smelling the food on the table undeniable wets our appetite. The smell of good food somehow temporarily make us forget our worries and relieves stress from office or school work. It helps to relax our minds and stabilizes our emotions and because of these, I take the opportunity to talk to my kids on topics about how they did in school or how the business went with my wife.

2. Best time to communicate.

Since everyone is on the table, it is the best time to talk about how kids did in school or how the business went with my wife. Our communication channels are always open so everyone can share ideas, work updates, and other fun stuff. It is also the best time for me to give advice and do short preaches to kids which they all accept arduously, and hopefully not on deaf ears.

3. Improves camaraderie.

Communication is always the first step to close camaraderie. The feeling of security from every member in the family because of physical presence and open communication often leads to improved camaraderie or close bonding.

4. Have fun.

Contrary to what my parents would always say when I was a young lad that we shouldn’t be smiling or having fun on the dinner table, I recommend otherwise. I make dinner time a fun time. I crack jokes once in a while just to break the momentary silence in between talks. I send appreciating comments to my wife on how well she cooked the food. Say positive remarks on my kids behaviour in school or think of other things that will atleast bring a smile on their faces. Leave the serious talks behind for a while, dinner time should be fun. Always remember, family meals are for nourishment, comfort, support and for having fun.

5. Improves self-esteem.

Since communication is a vital part of every meal time and everyone gets useful advices and a chance to talk openly about what they think; this eventually evolves to children developing their personal self-esteem.

I don’t know about you but I surely find it difficult to pass this up. My wife and I always consider meal time as the highlight of our day (or night) together be it at home or dining out. So how do you spend your meal time?

 

Tags: family, meals, parenting

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