Dinner with the Family

In the 1950’s, families were able to survive on a single income where mom traditionally stayed home and tended to the house affairs and dad went to work to earn the paycheck. Dad would come home at the end of the day, pour himself bourbon over ice drink, read the paper, then at dinner time sit down with his family and eat dinner which was prepared by mom in the kitchen. This was the time that the family spent together every day to discuss family business. “What did you learn at school today” or “What happened at work”, were common discussions amongst families during these dinners. Today, a majority of families are forced to operate on double incomes where mom is working, dad is working, and the kids have after-school activities or social obligations into the evening. Mom feeds the kids macaroni and cheese and delivers them to their activities and dad picks up a pizza on his way home from work for the family to eat as they return to the house. Houses are even built now without dining rooms because our culture eats on the go so much they’d rather use the space for something else and it is causing community family conversation time to almost be non-existent. Family dinner used to be a part of the daily functional family routine for Americans but now is becoming rare and causing dysfunctional family behavior due to the modern family’s economic and social demands and the availability of fast food convenience.

The family economy of the 1950’s was vastly different from our modern economy. According to the Census, the median house price in 1950 was $7354 and the median single earner wage for dad was $3319 meaning dad made 45% his house value in wages a year on his own. In 2000, the median house price was $119,600 and the median wage for both mom and dad working was $59,099 which is 49% of their home value earned through wages a year. The figures prove that on average it is necessary to have two wage earners in a modern family to equal that of just dad in the 1950s. Since the opportunities for multiple paychecks in a single family have been much improved since the 1950s with labor laws for women implemented in the 1960s, it seems to be the path that most families sacrifice both parents working for survival in the present economy. This results in less time at home for bonding as a family and more need for convenience meal scheduling.

Food selection had fewer options decades ago. In the beginning of the 1950’s, either you were eating at home or spending more by going to a restaurant to eat, but that changed when the fast food boom finally happened. Although McDonald’s restaurant was opened in 1937, it was 1959 before the franchise really boomed into production and set a precedence that many food chains followed in later years. As fast food became more available and more popular through advertisement, Americans started eating out more often. In modern society, there is a myriad of fast food chains for almost every food imaginable and all fighting for the lowest value deal to get customers through the door. Having convenience, great prices, repetitive advertisements from every media source, and no clean up; society is drawn to fast food like mosquitoes to a light. Convenience food allows families to eat quickly and individually which opens their schedules for more activities rather than spending the time on formal dinner. Unfortunately, the nation’s health statistics are frightfully declining in both older and younger generations.

According to a survey conducted by Columbia University, teenagers who eat with their families at least five times a week on average will get better grades, are 42% less likely to drink alcohol, 59% less likely to smoke, and 66% less likely to use marijuana. Approximately 50% of teenagers in the United States claim to have regular meals with their families. In the essay, “Everything Bad Is Good for You,” author Steven Johnson writes “In a house where most of the objects haven’t moved since yesterday, and no new people have appeared on the scene, the puppet show on the television screen is the most surprising thing in the child’s environment, the stimuli most in need of scrutiny and explanation”(466). Johnson writes on to prove that the idea of not taking a mutual interest in your children through conversations and activities will cause them to explore other avenues of entertainment to support the need to explore new things. This does not prove that dinner is the key element; it proves that if a ritual like family dinner is conducted, family is more likely to spend time in conversation in which the family will benefit. It has been compared to early child development where early child reading abilities were higher in children with more parent involvement. Realizing that convenience food is necessary for modern schedules, fixing more home cooked meals leads to a healthier diet and strays from soda and fried food allowing the family to maintain better physical and mental health.

The modern family needs these conveniences in order to survive the hectic schedules that our economy and our culture press upon us. The convenience of a microwavable dinner or fast food allows us to use our time toward our busy schedules rather than spending it preparing long meals and cleaning up. Eating on the fly is instrumental in scheduling more activities into our daily agenda including things like working more hours, different shifts at work from our significant other, or attending early evening events like college classes. Care must be taken when eliminating dinner with family that some kind of time is allotted for family time or the family risk becoming dysfunctional.

Family dinner is not the save all for dysfunctional families. Dysfunctional families remain dysfunctional because they are dysfunctional and not being able to schedule one time of the day to come together as a family could definitely be an indicator of a dysfunctional family. Strong families will make the time because they realize the importance of togetherness in our society. Understand that the economy in the United States, modern culture, and social expectations of integrating mom into the work force is making time for dinner is a challenge to the modern family and it is eliminating a tool for functional family bonding. The benefits of this long standing tradition increases the family bonds through interaction, opens the lines of communication by giving all the family members a voice at the table, and makes the family healthier as a whole both mentally and physically.

Works Cited

McKenzie, J. (2005, September 13). Family Dinner Linked to Better Grades for Teens. ABC NEWS. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2008). Housing and wage medians. Retrieved from http://www.census.com.
Johnson, Steven.”Everything Bad Is Good for You: Games.” Remix. Boston, MA. Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2010.