Eating together with family creates a feeling of togetherness. It might not be on the same plate, but just at the same time and also together on the same table.
Eating together plays a vital role in strengthening the family bond. There are so many activities one can have with their family that would create a special bond, and eating is one of them. The fun thing about it is that we eat at least two square meals a day, so you have at least twice a day to create that special memory and laugh about something at least twice a day with your family.
Eating together has always been a thing of my family until now that we've all grown older and we eat separately.
We always looked forward to eating together because it was fun. It was fun because on most days, someone might end up eating some of your fish or meat, and all you can do is just cry and if you're lucky, mum would give you a replacement.
Eating together was more like a survival of the fittest hahaha. Meal time was something we always looked forward to, not just because of the food but also because of the fun. My senior cousin, who doesn't like eating, came to spend a month's holiday with us, and one thing he took back with him was a vacuum in his stomach. We taught him how to eat and fast hahaha. We still laugh about it to this day.
We made some rules that whenever we ate together, the last person to spell APPLE would be the one to clear the table and do all the chores. Yup! This made some people who were too lazy to leave the table earlier hahaha.
As we grew older, my older siblings didn't quite like the idea of eating together maybe because of their phones. They would want to eat and press their phones at the same time, and for some reason, some took the disappearance of their fish/meat personally hahaha, so to avoid fighting, Mum started sharing our food separately.
I remember one time when me and my fighting partner got into a serious fight and he punched my left eye. He gave me a black eye, and my fans, I decided not to talk to him forever lol (we're pretty close now by the way lol). Days after days, I didn't talk to him. There was this particular night where my mum shared our food in the same bowl and we all had to eat together. We dipped our spoons at the same time and picked up the same fish. The scenario was so funny we ended up laughing really hard. That was how we settled the beef we had for days, lol. Should I say that food brought us together? Lol.
I've seen so many families where they don't eat together. I went to visit my friend and after her mum finished preparing the meal, she called all of us out to come take our food. I thought we would eat in the dining room only to see everyone going to their rooms to eat. I was so surprised because, in my house, it's either you eat from the bowl, or you rest, and even on days when we ate separately, we still ate at the same time and in the same place, just on different plates.
Right now, we still try our best to eat together whenever we have the time and everyone is available. It's hard to have everyone in the house at the same time because of one reason or the other. There's work; some would be busy on their phone and wouldn't want to stand up until they are done with whatever it is they are doing, and some would be sleeping, but Overall, our schedules have changed, and we have things that have gotten in the way of family mealtime so I eat whenever I like.
On most days when our schedules align and we make dinner, we all get to eat together and during that process, we talk about some good old memories and how much it meant to us back then. It's always fun to eat together with my family and it's a rare occurrence for now.
Mostly now, I do eat alone all the time as I'm always home alone and sometimes I feel sad eating alone. I'm not a heavy eater when I eat alone. I tend to eat too little so eating with people always boosts my appetite.
I'm so envious of families that eat together regardless of how old they are. I watch some white movies, and sometimes I crave things like that, and I know the family I'll build will have something like that. I know the importance of eating together with family. Eating together creates a tight and bond in the family.
Thanks for reading ❤️