Hello, everyone, I trust you all had an amazing weekend; it's Monday again, and we are all ready to go about our businesses.
Eating together as a family is something that most families don't practice, especially these days, mostly because of the busy schedules of the parents; some of them come back so late from their 9 - 5 jobs that by the time they are back, their children are already fast asleep.
Family Dinner: How is family dinner in your home? Do you all eat together at the same time and in the same place? Or does everyone eat where and when they can? Does this affect the dynamics of familial bonds? Or would you like to change your style?
Growing up, my family usually had our meals together, especially dinner. When we all came back from school and my parents from work, we would all assist in the preparation of the dinner for that day. When dinner was ready, we all would gather around the dinner table, say our prayers, and eat to our heart's content.
While eating, we all will talk about the highlights of our day, what stood out for us during the day; if it was something funny that someone said or did, we’d all burst into laughter; if it was something bad that happened to one of us, we would sympathize with the person and cheer the person up.
Dinner time for us was one time we got to really communicate and bond as a family, knowing what was happening in each other's life. It was always a great time to spend with my family. I can’t forget in a hurry how sometimes, after dinner, we would just sit, talk, and laugh; my dad also told some very funny stories, so we got to hear these stories during these periods.
Gradually, as we began to grow older, it became difficult to get all of us at the dining table at the same time; we all started having very different schedules that prevented the whole family from eating together. It started with one or two persons missing at the table until it got to the point where everyone just had their meals individually.
These days, with the advent of technology, most families still eat together; during mealtime, you tend to see everyone with their devices tapping away; no one is aware of what is happening with the next person, and by the time they are done with the meal everyone goes their way.
Eating together has its benefits, for one it creates a bond between members of the family as I had said earlier, it gives the opportunity for everyone to know what is going on in the lives of each member of the family, it is also a time when decisions that concern the growth of the family is discussed, with everyone contributing their quota. It also helps the members of the family release stress, I once read somewhere that when you eat food with your loved ones, your body releases a feel-good hormone that is known as oxytocin. This hormone helps you feel good and also helps you reduce your stress level.
Eating together as a family also provides opportunities for dispute resolution, if there are any issues between siblings or parents and the children, what better time to resolve it than over a meal? So yeah the benefits of eating together as a family are too numerous to be overlooked.
I once watched a series called 'Young Sheldon', in the movie, the family never took eating together for granted, no matter what you had to do, once it was meal time, everyone was to be at the table, during this time, the parents would ask the children about their day and they would catch up.
When I get to have my own family, one of the things I would imbibe in my family is the eating together tradition as the benefits cannot be overemphasized.
How do you eat meals in your family, do you eat individually or together, is eating meals together as a family something you would want to practice in your family if you're not already practicing it? I would like to know what you all think.
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