The Importance of Family Meal Times London

By  Yvonne Wake Supernanny Expert 06/05/2008

When was the last time you and your whole family sat down together around a dinning table to eat a meal that mum or dad had cooked from scratch? Now if this sounds normal to some of you, feel fortunate. If however that sounds like a very strange concept, read on!

The speed at which we live today no longer allows for calm, slow eating habits. Most people work long hours, most mums are out working, single parents are struggling to do everything that a couple would normally do, there are lots of fast food opportunities, eating out of the home is now on the increase (30% of our food is now eaten out of the home) and take-away meals and snack food are all that some children know.

Food is served at different times to accommodate members of the family with different lifestyle behaviours, and all too often food is eaten on the lap in front of the television in silence, not to disturb the programme. Quite often we hear that a child eats alone in his/her bedroom in front of the computer. Life is now so fast moving that we have created a more ‘convenient’ system of purchasing ready made processed food and heating it up in the microwave and then wolfing it down in five minutes in front of the television. Even if the intention is to eat together as a family, ‘timing’ can change the whole event because supper time only occurs within such a small time frame. For example, one child might be enjoying some extracurricular school activity and then need picking up around supper time, disturbing an evening meal routine with two people away from the table.

Growing up in London in the early 50’s and 60’s, every evening around the same time, one of us would be asked to set the table, then we’d be asked to go and wash our hands, before sitting down to the meal which my mother had cooked. This was the time of day when we would talk about our day at school and my parents would talk about their day at work. It was a social event and lots of good information was debated around the dinner table.

One of modern Britain’s biggest challenges relates to the health of the nation and the link it has with our daily food intake. Not only has family structure changed, but the food we eat, where we eat it, and with whom we eat it with has also changed at a similar pace. Combine all these trends and it becomes evident why our children have such poor eating behaviours today. Not only is nutritional intake a concern, but also food preparation methods, cost of food, perceived healthiness of the food, taste, amount and of course whether or not the food eaten is fresh and correctly cooked and served.

The family environment is one of the strongest determinants of dietary behaviour - expressed through a parent’s belief in what food is good or bad for a child. Parents also influence a child’s exposure to certain foods as well as where the food is eaten, i.e. at the table, or in front of the television.

A family environment is als...

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