Extracts from an article by Anne Karpf, published in The Guardian, 01.07.06.
I'd like to invite Jamie Oliver into my home..to see what a family meal looks like. Now I defer to no one in my admiration for Oliver - I cried in elation during Jamie's School Dinners - but his latest campaign, to encourage families to make time to eat together, has the pungent aroma of fantasy to it.
It sounds wholesome enough. The fact that today, as few as three in 10 families sit down together more than once a week to share a meal, is shocking - the more so when you realise that this includes TV dinners.To eat together you need to meet together, and this statistic suggests that families have become so fragmented that they're completely without shared time and purpose - football aside. Who could therefore object to Oliver's and indeed the government's move to get families back to eating together in order to eat healthier food? [.] I want to invite Oliver into my home because, although I coerce my kids into having a daily family meal (they've never been ghettoised in 'children's tea'), my teenager regards it as some sort of punishment. No other family, she says indignantly, has to eat together so often. And, in truth, instead of bringing us together, it often only emphasises our differences, not just in our tastebuds: the family meal is the perfect germinating ground for a family row. My eldest still grazes and complains that there's nothing to eat, while I'm cast in the role of policewoman, stopping everyone from watching The Simpsons or repeats of America's Next Top Model.[.]
I applaud Oliver's desire to improve our diet and increase our pleasure in eating, but I'm not convinced that the family meal can ever be a site of harmony, or a sanctuary from faddishness. The age of the Oxo family (if it ever existed) is well and truly over.
(The Guardian, 01.07.06)
Talking to toddlers is the best way to help them develop good language skills and become confident communicators, but it doesn't have to be a burden for parents. Talking happens naturallyduring daily activities like mealtimes when families gather together to relax and enjoy a meal.
For toddlers, mealtimes are a constant learning experience. During the interaction of a family meal they hear and pick up new words, helping them to talk, and learn important social skills like listening and turn-taking by observing other family members.
In 2004 a survey of 2000 parents for the Mother and Baby magazine found that nearly half (48 percent) of all toddlers never eat with the rest of the family. Instead they often eat on their own while watching television.
Many families eat meals in front of the television, some or all of the time. This can be relaxing for parents and children after a busy day but it does distract families from talking and listening to each other, so turn off the television occasionally to ensure quality time for conversations.
It's especially importantly for under-threes that families eat meals together in one room, even if it's around the television, as talking will naturally occur during the ad breaks and between programmes.
For great conversation starters visit www.raisingkids.co.uk and look under 'Back to the table'. This is a web-based campaign run by raisingkids.co.uk to get families to eat more meals together. Their website includes lots of useful advice for parents on feeding young children, including how to wean babies and how to encourage toddlers to eat vegetables, as well as tips on how to make the most of family mealtimes.
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