Why Eating Together as a Family is Important

 

No matter how busy our lives have become, it’s more important than ever to eat together as a family. As mental health becomes a growing concern, mealtimes are the best way to check in on our family members and their mental well-being. Plus, there are many advantages to eating together at home, especially if you have young children in the family.

Children can pick up good table manners during mealtimes

 

No one likes a messy eater at the table or someone who unashamedly snatches up all the abalone pieces during the annual reunion dinners. Because young children learn by observing their family members, it is up to parents (and grandparents or older siblings) to be good role models for them. This includes important concepts such as filial piety and respecting one’s elders, especially before big family gatherings! Having shared meals together also allows children to learn lifelong habits which will benefit them in future social situations.

However, when you find that your children aren’t behaving well at the table, it presents an opportunity to probe into why they are feeling that way. Noticing that your child is eating lesser than usual or realising that they’ve not spoken much during a meal could present issues that need to be addressed to help your child feel better.

Mealtimes provide opportunities to foster better communication among family members

Family members should look forward to their shared mealtimes as the highlights of their day. Thus, mealtimes should be made enjoyable, with plenty of positive encouragement to have an open discussion about everyone’s day. By doing so, young children can learn to build better self-esteem through learning how they can respect each other’s boundaries and to listen patiently to one another. In the long run, nurturing a sense of belonging is helpful in making children feel safe and secure at home, allowing them to feel at ease to share their worries with their family members.

Shared mealtimes promote healthy eating behaviours

Regular mealtimes provide a structure and routine to our days, thereby evoking deep feelings of contentment and security. Plus, mealtimes are the best way to teach children about which vegetables and meats are beneficial for them because they get to taste the food first-hand. It’s also the quickest way to foster a culture of mutual respect and understanding, especially around each other’s likes and dislikes about food. By letting children experiment freely with different cultural dishes and ingredients, you can also discover and resolve picky eating habits early on. 

Family meals don’t have to be a complicated affair either. If you don’t have the time to cook your family meals or find the time to eat out, you can order tingkat delivery so you can still enjoy homecooked meals in the comfort of your own home. Tingkat catering is great for families of 2 to 4 people, and cheaper than eating out all the time too. There’s also a wide array of tingkat services in Singapore, with most of them offering healthier options for your family, like Le Xin Catering using only pure vegetable oil and no MSG in their food, making their meals low in salt and cholesterol. The best part about their tingkat menu is that you get different dishes every day, so you can leave it up to the tingkat caterers to take the pressure off your meal plans every night so that you can have more time to focus on bonding with your family.

 

As Mother Teresa says, “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.” We might think that eating together is a simple act, but it has a greater impact than we can imagine. Food is so much more than just fuel for the body. Eating together with family members helps to build our health, relationships, culture, and well-being.