I’ve been making blog posts about an article that I read in the Washington Post earlier this year, that just reinforces what I’ve already been saying…and it feels REALLY good to be right. 😉 I’ve talked previously about the effect that eating meals with my grandparents had on me…memories that I still cherish to this day. Then I discussed the positive effects that eating meals together can have…I’m going to expound on that more with this post, since it can’t be repeated enough.
There ARE a few caveats with this though. You can’t just have one parent cooking the meal, then sitting down and eating in silence. It’s extremely important for this to be a shared experience for the entire family. Food is one of the few things that binds all people together. We all have to eat, so why not make this a communal experience, as it’s been throughout so much of human history.
I’m going to go off on a rant here, so please bear with me. 😉
One thing that truly bothers me, and that I want to change, is that meals have become such a lonely, isolated experience. We get our food delivered, then shuffle off to our own space to eat in silence. It doesn’t have to be this way! All across the world, civilizations that aren’t as distracted as we are still enjoy meals together. It’s one of the few things that can bring us together…but here in America, it’s one of the things that separates us…no more!
I remember back in 2014 I spent 10 days in Indonesia with my sister, her boyfriend and a friend of hers. It really blew me away when I saw the open-air markets, that had open seating right off the street! You had large groups of strangers, all eating together, enjoying themselves and striking up conversation. When’s the last time you dared try to talk to somebody else in any kind of eating establishment here in America? You don’t dare, because here we know that you’ll probably get punched if you try that! Ridiculous.
Anyway, rant over, I want to close out my discussion on this section of the article, then tie it off so I can sum up the article in the last of four posts. From the article:
“Some research has even found a connection between regular family dinners and the reduction of symptoms in medical disorders, such as asthma. The benefit might be due to two possible byproducts of a shared family meal: lower anxiety and the chance to check in about a child’s medication compliance.”
Think about the effect that this mealtime could have on you and your relationships with your family? With all that’s going on in the world, don’t you want to know that your kids are living with less stress and anxiety? Is there any price that you can put on the knowledge that your family is better off from the simple act of eating a meal together and sharing conversation? I don’t think there is…and I know my sister and her four kids agree, I hope you do too. 🙂
Until next time,
Chef Curry
