Oman- The gathering of the family at the daily dining table is a form of intimacy and affection among its members. Sofra is not just dishes and food to be eaten. Previously, meals were an integral part of family life, as its members knew that they had to be at home at certain times so that everyone could eat at one table.
Now, this scene is absent from a large number of families, although sitting together at the dining table has health and psychological benefits and positive effects on children, especially children, according to what specialists confirm to “Al-Jazeera Net”.
Family members reunion teaches eating etiquette by helping prepare the table and assigning roles among them (Pixels)
Family gathering and dialogue
Psychologist Dr. Salam Ashour told Al-Jazeera Net: “Parents seek to provide healthy food to protect their children, as well as to preserve their mental health and provide attention and love to protect them from any behavioral disorder that may affect their lives, which is called emotional nourishment. And with life’s challenges and various requirements, Parents may work long hours to secure the livelihood of their children, which continually prompts them to invest their remaining time in the interest of the family as a whole.
One of the most successful times is the family gathering around the dining table, exchanging conversation and dialogue with the children, and sharing with them the events of their day, according to specialist Ashour, considering that the matter creates an atmosphere of intimacy between family members and reduces intensity and tension, and teaches them the skills of social communication with others, in addition to teaching them a lot of things. Educational values, such as cooperation, responsibility and eating etiquette by helping to prepare the table and assigning roles among them.
Dr. Salam Ashour: Maintaining the dining table routine teaches children healthy eating habits (Al-Jazeera)
Children’s psychological immunity
Salam believes that being careful to maintain the routine of this good habit, on an almost daily or weekly basis, teaches children healthy eating habits and works on solving their nutritional problems, as well as contributes to forming memories with parents and siblings.
“But here, parents must pay attention so that this family gathering is positively effective, away from the use of phones and preoccupation with electronic devices… so that it achieves benefit and the children enjoy psychological immunity and family support that helps them excel academically,” according to Salam Ashour.
For his part, sociologist Dr. Hussein Mahadin told Al-Jazeera Net that the idea of group meeting, represented by the daily “food conferences”, witnessed a system of changes towards an increase in the rates and titles of individual freedoms and values for children.
Mahadin points out that family relations, as a legal and cultural organization, were present as an educational necessity for children of both sexes, and previously witnessed the basic participation of parents in Arab-Islamic societies, because they were a daily expression of the privacy of our culture, compared to the reality in Western societies.
Dr. Hussein Mahadin: The stressful rhythm of economic life is the reason for the rarity of all family members gathering around meals (Al-Jazeera)
Reduction in family roles
The current pressure and globalized economic rhythm of life has caused the rarity of all family members gathering around meals. Mahadin believes that this shrinking of the family’s roles and status has led to intermediary institutions carrying out tasks that were historically entrusted to our families, such as:
Cooking, as restaurants are taking over this, especially those specializing in fast food. Education and guidance of children, which social media has become doing in the technological age.
Most of the visits of mutual courtesy with others, individuals and families, took place in restaurants, farms, or outside the geographical space, that is, housing.
In modern life, most family and social meetings take place in restaurants and farms away from home (Shutterstock)
The absence of a family table
Under the heading “Why Don’t So Many Families Eat Meals Together Now?” Nanny McPhee Some of the reasons for the absence of the family table, and its impact on children.
The site indicated that meals previously used to be an official affair, which means that all family members sit around the dinner table without any distractions to eat together and share their diaries. Nowadays, the busyness between phones, game consoles, and TV is hard to ignore. It simply means that mealtimes have become less formal and less sacred in a way.
And the site considered that it is unlikely that children will have good table manners if their eating behaviors are not the same as other family members, “by eating regular family meals together, you can improve not only their food choices, but also enhance the emotional benefits of interacting with you as parents.”
Family meals may be stressful for parents, especially if their children are still young, as they need to eat early, because their bedtimes are early, and parents may not be ready to eat at the same time.
The site stresses the benefits of family time for our emotional health, as much as it is for our physical well-being, as enjoying meals together is not as prevalent in societies as it was before, but being together as a family or simply communicating will strengthen the bonds between parents and children.
2023-07-06 15:51:31
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