The fate of the family dinner
March 10, 2013 by LindsayThe demise of the family dinner has been forecast since at least the 1950’s, when TV dinners and tables became popular. So we were a little surprised that NPR brought the subject up again in “Family Dinner: Treasured Tradition or Bygone Ideal.” But we wanted to hear if they said anything new.
Well, kind of. As a result of a poll, they claim that “despite families ranking a family meal as a high priority, about half of children live in a home where, on a given night, families don’t sit down together to eat or share the same food.” That’s not a surprise, nor is it a surprise that the family dinner is a high priority.
What was a bit of a surprise, however, is that they feel that the family dinner may be over rated. Since distraction is a way of life, especially given the presence of technology, the quality of the family dinner may not be high. There may indeed be other ways to create that same quality time and just surrender to reality.
That may be true, but we’re sceptical. Even if quality time can be substituted, a family dinner offers other benefits: nutritional training, teaching cooking skills, cultivating a taste for a variety of foods, and – last, but not least – it’s still one of the best ways to say “I care.”
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