For Ms. Scholastica Au, a public health nurse and the 1st guest speaker of our Bright and Cheerful Home Seminar on The Art of Family Mealtime, her fond memories about family meals were storytelling.  Growing up with aunts, uncles and cousins, in addition to her own family, in a 3 bedroom condo in Hong Kong, she dined daily with at least 12 family members around a small oval table.  Her parents, aunts and uncles would share stories about their days during the war and post war at the dinner table, but with smiles and gratefulness.  Ms. Au continued to share,

“We all have different memories, especially food memories. Certain food will trigger positive thoughts, or vice versa. I recently heard from Jordan Peterson, a psychologist, not a direct quote: the purpose of memory is not reminiscing the past. The purpose of memory is to extract out, from the past, lessons to structure the future.”

Ms. Au invited us to consider “Division of Responsibility in Feeding”, created by dietitian Ellyn Satter, to build trust and positive feeding relationships.  Echoed by our 2nd guest speaker, Mrs. Ida Gazzola encouraged us to focus on the true worth of family meals – relations with our children and family unity through dinner conversations.  Having 7 children, Mrs. Gazzola drew upon her 19 years of parenting experience to involve the whole family to create fun and meaningful memories about family meals, from telling stories to serving dinner occasionally with family movie!  Focusing too much on screens and personal conflicts might deter us to communicate at the dinner table, but with intentional planning and practice, families could really benefit in all aspects of growth from eating together!  Mrs. Gazzola re-iterated what Irene Freundorfer, author of 10kids.com, reflected upon,

“Your children are home for only a short time in your life. Build the memories.  Plug into the power of family meals. Whether you talk about your work, the news, family lore, plans for vacations etc., you are helping your kids develop criteria, values, identity, sense of belonging and family intimacy. …You have the power to really make a difference in your family’s well-being by this simple daily ritual.”

Thank you for joining us @ The Art of Family Mealtime, we look forward to seeing you at our Adolescence course or future Bright and Cheerful Home Seminars!

Below please find the resource guide based on Ms. Au and Mrs. Gazzola’s presentation and an article about having dinner together by Mrs. Gazzola for your reference:

The Art of Family Mealtime

The Magic Fix of Family Life: Dinner Together