To improve upon our family systems and encourage family bonding, a Lecturer and Dean of Students Affairs of the Garden City University College, Madam Christa Osei-Mensah, is encouraging families to create a family hour, where they communicate freely, like in the past where they ate together and shared quality time.
Madam Christa Osei–Mensah says, even if it’s not daily, once a week for communal eating is meaningful time to create stronger family ties, to minimise some of the vices today.
She was speaking to GBC News’s Peggy Ama Donkor on the importance of communal eating, a practice which is no longer valued, especially in urban areas.
A common setting in most homes, a few decades ago was communal eating. Sadly, this beneficial moment is gradually dying out, especially in urban Ghana, where the family is becoming more individualistic rather than communal.
Why will parents put children of different age groups together to eat?
That’s deep – an all-important family moment. But will this not be to the disadvantage of the younger ones?
Today, the situation is changing due to a number of factors especially, the home set up.
Unfortunately, the demands of the times has changed everything affecting this form of communal eating. How can this conversation be revisited?
Madam Christa Osei Mensah says if all the running around by parents is for the sake of the children then there must be premium on developing strong family bonds.
This, she says can reduce some social vices. She questions – what is the point of making all the money, while the beneficiaries go wayward?
