I am an advocate of making one meal time a FAMILY time.

Why?

Because we always hear food preparation comes from love…and a family meal time means love and family connections. Sharing a good meal together helps to relax us and to open up communication.We can share our experiences of the day with each other, or express our thoughts and our feelings.

Food and memories

The aroma of food or certain dishes can trigger your memories, especially those foods that have strong connections to your childhood. Food can ignite strong memories and emotions, which gives you a sense of connection to your roots, to who you are…

I know that every time when I taste a dish that my grandmother used to cook;, there is a big smile on my face. Have you ever had this wonderful experience?

Dinner

We are now living in a fast paced lifestyle, where meeting up for a meal together can seem quite impossible.

If possible, make an effort to have dinner together. When having dinner together, it would be a fantastic idea if everyone is focused on dinner and not other things at the same time; which means TV, phone texting and computer are out of bounds during this time.

Also, if your partner normally gets home from work after dinner time, get the children to have their dinner first and join their dad for dessert later. For example, my husband used to get home late from work, and my children would have had their dinner.  But they would join us again at the dinner table for some fruit or dessert. It is not about them having more food, but basically, it’s just to catch up with their father at the end of the day.

Breakfast

If you have the time to organise it, I would suggest breakfast as a family connection time as well. This is the time where you would usually go through your schedule for the day. Meal time may be very short in the morning, but the connections and communications are already established for the day.

Give it a GO! And make a meal time a FAMILY time. It is a wonderful way to connect with your family.

Would love to hear whether you have any meal time challenges, how often you eat together as a family?