Taking meals with family
Taking meals with family provides the opportunity to engage in conversations with family members. Spending time with family is fundamental and taking meals together helps give a chance to bond with each other. Listening to my family over meals when I was a child often made me forget the time pass. Family meal time is captivating as it helps people share their experiences, exchange ideas and even get advice from family members. Moreover, it also provides an opportunity to have fun after a long day.
Growing up family meal times
Growing up family meal times were always the perfect way to unwind and have conversations with the family members. I loved listening to the stories, political matters as well as encouragement shared over meals. My father had his seat at the head of the table and was a stern man, but he was also very good at telling stories. He would tell different stories from his experience at work or his younger years, and each story would end with a punchline that would leave us all laughing regardless of what the story was. Sometimes my mother would give my father a look that would somewhat suggest that he was exaggerating his narrative to make it funny.
My mother's updates
My mother would keep everyone updated on the happenings of family and friends like the daily news bulleting. She also had a segment on entertainment news where she would give us a taste of the exciting parts of information she had heard through the grapevine. She was always aware of the new marriages or babies, upcoming events and latest accomplishments at her place work. Sometimes, I would get scared of doing something wrong because of the stories she shared since she had a way of learning about things like a detective. I would take the opportunity to report myself when I had done something wrong when she was in a good mood rather than letting her find out from other sources.
Talks among siblings
My siblings barely paid attention to what my parents would talk about during meal times and had conversations of their own. My siblings would tease each other and discuss the trending topics in school which were quite interesting especially when I learned something that I did not know. They would also talk about the latest boy band crash, computers, political issues or school drama. I would shift my attention from my parents’ conversation and that of my siblings since I did not want to miss out on the good parts. Talks during meal time were not only fun but gave us an opportunity to bond and become friends as a family.
Progress in family mealtime
Initially, meal time was not always fun, and we would spend about ten minutes at the table. The conversations during meal time would change instantaneously, and there was little interest displayed. My parents would initiate conversations by asking us about our day. We were not as close with my siblings, and we could hardly keep a discussion going. At times all we did was complain about passing the salt at the table. Over time the talks during meal times turned intense and led to discussions and agreements across the table. Sometimes there were heated debates that got personal, and our parents had to exercise their control through grounding.
Building relationships and communication skills
Family mealtime helped build the relationship between my family as well as boost my communication skills. Having a stern father made my siblings, and I make sure that we did not use disrespectful language when talking to our parents or each other. It also provided us with skills on starting conversations and reading body language through our interactions. My family offers a great support system due to the time we shared having long conversations during meal time. Whenever I need to learn more on particular discussion topics, I turn to them for advice as well as do some research on my own. Engaging my family in conversations is always exciting, fun and helpful.
