Getting people back round the table!

[super7]

What is it about modern living that stops people from dining at the table?
Mealtimes are an opportunity to laugh together, bond and share experiences.

Why do people no longer eat at the table? (discuss)

[jake-the-peg]

Maybe people have other interests that they enjoy more than talking to their family who they may not actually like very much.

discuss!

[rojash]

Most of the people I know do eat at the table, so maybe it's not a modern living thing, but a phenomenon that's local to you?

[Ethel]

Shift work , so family members have to eat at different times.

Television - some people prefer to watch tv during mealtimes.


Faddy eating and fast food. So each family member 'dings' a meal whenever they want.

[Lonnie]

As Ethel says, there are various legitimate reasons for this, but I believe one day a week should be set aside for a family meal.

[bernardo]

What makes you think that people don't?

[super7]

According to the 2004 National Family Mealtime Survey, 20% of those asked sat down to eat together just once a week or less. The poll, by parenting organisation Raisingkids.co.uk, found children often had meals alone in their bedrooms while watching TV or playing computer games. Of those who did eat together, TV was the preferred dinner guest, with 75% eating while watching it.

[jake-the-peg]

Families vary hugely it's not just the cosy little nuclear family with everbody sitting down and politely talking about their days.

It's not the having meals that's important it's the sharing something - anything.

for example I often go out training before dinner and eat late and my wife will sometimes not want to eat. My kids tend to skip their school lucnch and come in ravenous. But we'll most likely watch a bbc2 documentry or comedy together in the evening.

If you have a great big "Waltons" thing going on and everybody wants to join in that's great but personally in my teens I'd have hated having to sit down for a meal with all my family and I'm certainly not going to push it down my childrens throats.


Who are the "National family mealtime survey" anyway? Oh look it's a comprehensive survey of the registered members of www.raisingkids.co.uk

Hardly what you'd call a representative sample is it?

[WoWo]

I have been married for 6 years and we always sit at the table and eat together, never in front of the TV. If we had kids it would be the same.

[maggie01]

We always ate at the table when my girls were at home and even after that till we moved and our dining room is seperate from the lounge now. Also my husband gets in late sometimes so he eats round the tv. I used to enjoy sitting at the table chatting about our day.