Sitting down to dinner is a very important part of everyday life. Food itself has a very important role to play in socialising and social events.

Family dinners are an extremely important part of family life. In the past when the husband was more often than not the main bread-winner, the mother had the dinner ready and all the family sat down to dinner together. it was a chance for everyone in the family unit to get together, socialise and chat about the day, be it work, school or home. It was a common bond.

Also sitting together with the family can be very educational. If there is somebody in the family who regularly cooks the dinner, then other members may gradually lean how to boil potatoes or cook carrots. Family dinners are usually very nutritional with an average Irish dinner consisting of boiled or roasted potatoes, steamed carrots, bacon, cabbage and peas. These foods contain a large amount of carbohydrates, iron, vitamins, protein, minerals and a little fat to keep one's energy levels up.

But since then times have changed. People are in general out of the house more than ever before. Some say that sitting down to dinner is the only opportunity that the modern family gets to spend time with each other as a whole on a typical day. In light of this you would imagine that there would be a better effort made by every family member to get together at dinnertime as it might be the only time of the day that the family gets together. But, in fact, quite the opposite has happened.

Television is an obstacle that has come in the way. Children especially have become rather reluctant to leave the TV at mealtimes as it is a time when there are many interesting programmes on the television especially for children. So a lot of children sit in front of the television with their dinner watching their favourite soap or cartoon and the whole mealtime passes without the family bonding whatsoever.

Microwaves are a new invention that seems to have taken over peoples homes also. As members of families have all their own timetables - going to work, going to school, they are more inclines to buy convenience foods, pop them in the microwave for ten minutes and then sit down on their own with the television and eat.

This is a very unhealthy way of life as it is very important for families to sit down and talk to each other or it is possible that the family will become dysfunctional. People will become withdrawn and refuse to talk to any of the other members of their family. Perhaps this is one of the reasons families are separating nowadays and the number of divorces and separations are increasing.

We all know the saying "The family is the basic unit of society". Well, it is imperative that all family members make a greater effort to sit down to dinner together or soon there will be no such thing as the "family unit".

By: Laurette Nestor
Caroline Kirrane
Irene Donnelly
Aoife Conroy
Gemma Prendergast
Patricia Boyle
Róisín Hambly