Today family members eat fewer meals together. Why is this? Is this a positive or negative trend?

REPORTED ON 4 JANUARY, 2022

Family members are not often seen eating meals together these days. There are two major reasons behind this trend, and not many can agree that this fetches positive results.

The first major reason behind this is because of the lack of time. To be precise, most family members are engaged in some work at each meal time. For example, a child might have to be at his school at the family’s breakfast, and most family members have their food at their respective places of work or study at lunch. The only time they are available together these days is at the dinner, and at that time too some family members will be still at work.

The second reason why this happens is because of the popularity of fast foods and convenience food. Family members now have the option of instant food delivery system, and they do not necessarily wait for the meal time. For instance, the food delivery system is efficient enough to serve food even at midnight, and even at that time, the customer has the privilege of availing a range of options to choose from.

Most people would say this trend is negative because it reduces the opportunity of family members to cement a sense of unity among them.  In the past, every meal was cooked, shared and eaten among the family members. Thus they maintained a strong inter-personal relationship, and had not missed that. As the number of meals eaten together fell, the communication among the family members has become less-effective, declining the family bond considerably.

To conclude, it is obvious that the two major reasons behind the decline in the frequency of family meals are lack of time and changing life-style, and one can definitely say this is a negative trend.

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