Your say / coronavirus
‘Since lockdown, the evening meal has become the main focal point for family interaction’
Since Covid-19 put us all into lockdown, we think about food a lot; when and where we’ll buy it, how we’ll cook it (trying an arsenal of new recipes we never got around to until now) and how we’ll sit down to eat it – on a continual loop.
Thinking about food and eating seems to dominate our days and mealtimes in our house have been transformed in unexpected ways.
Before lockdown, typically I’d cook dinner for my teenage kids and call them when it is ready. We go through phases where I’d rota them in to cook a meal each week, but enthusiasm wanes with the business of life.
is needed now More than ever
Since lockdown, the evening meal has become the main focal point for family interaction. The kids come and find me, we decide together what we’ll eat, each taking a role in the preparation. It’s become a fun collaborative activity that we all look forward too.
Cooking has become a family activity for Sam Stone. Photo: Square Food Foundation
My daughter told me that, before lockdown, the part of the clock she’d look forward to the end of the school or work day, whereas now, cooking and eating together is the part of the day she looks forward to the most.
The meal often ends with lively debates that can last for hours or until we are too exhausted to go on!
I am an educational researcher at the University of Bath. My research explores children’s socialisation during the school mealtime from the child’s point of view.
I have discovered that children learn a lot about who they are in relation to others and the time to eat is much more than just nourishment of the physical body. If I cast my mind back to my own family mealtime, I fondly remember private jokes between my siblings, the secret cheeky smiles about lumpy custard, the revulsion and avoidance of eating liver!
Sam Stone studies children at mealtimes. Photo: USDA
Covid-19 has changed the way we live together. My kids are more willing and joyful to collaborate in preparing, eating and interacting over the evening meal.
It provides us with a focal point to our day, giving each other attention (where teenagers don’t have to admit to wanting to hang out). The pandemic can be a useful way to remind ourselves of what is important to us and what we value most. I’m hopeful that after lockdown we’ll be able to continue the connection that we have built together.
How have your mealtimes changed since lockdown? Perhaps you are battling to get the kids to eat anything other than snacks (we’ve all been there!). Whatever your story, let’s get the mealtime conversation started.
Sam Stone. Photo: Sam Stone
Sam Stone studies children’s mealtime socialisation in the school mealtime context at the University of Bath.
Email Samantha.Stone@bath.ac.uk to find out more about Sam’s research or share a family mealtime experience.
Main photo: Maria Newman
Read more: Getting free school meals to children in the midst of coronavirus
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
