Is Your Home Like A Hotel?

Have family meals gone out of fashion?

As the government plans a national tour to promote its Respect Agenda, published last month, the BBC News website examines the importance of the family meal for fostering respect.

The days of families sitting down together every evening for a meal are often said to be long gone and their demise is sometimes seen as symptomatic of the breakdown in family life.

Can it also have led to a decline in respect between generations?

Various studies have suggested a link between fewer family meals and eating disorders, obesity, drug and alcohol abuse and poor communication skills among young people.

Mealtime aspirations

Kathryn Milburn, professor of sociology of families and health, believes modern mothers find it very difficult to ensure an old-fashioned cooked meal at a set time.

She said: "There is so much pressure on women to be all singing all dancing.

"They are out in the labour market and trying to do other things like supervising children's homework. They face many demands.

Women are very concerned to provide their families with decent meals.

"I completely understand they have to go down the convenience food route."

She has not studied the knock-on effects that not having meals as a family may have on anti-social behaviour but has examined competing pressures on parents.

"If they don't manage to sit down as family every evening it is hardly surprising," said Ms Milburn, who is co-director of the Centre for Research on families and relationships based at Edinburgh University.

"Putting a meal together is definitely something they still value but it is often impossible to do on a daily basis."

Justine Roberts, co-founder of the parenting website netmums.com, agrees.

She said: "One or both parents are not getting home until after bedtime. There is no prospect of an evening meal.

"Most people aspire to it and think it a good thing but it gets relegated to weekends."

But to blame a decline in mealtimes to an increase in anti-social behaviour was a "bit trite", she said.

"It's just another catchy thing to make parents feel guilty. It's just not that simple," she said.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4356992.stm]BBC NEWS[/url]