OVER a typical lifetime, a dining table will be the scene of 132 arguments, 93 bombshell announcements, 104 moments of passion, 594 homework sessions and 259 children’s tantrums.

Everything, it seems, but eating!

According to a study, 78per cent of Brits don’t sit down to a daily meal at the table, and 23 TV dinners are eaten from the sofa per month. When we do get around to sitting together at the table, we only spend 10 minutes eating, unlike other countries such as Italy, where a culture revolving around food and family means they spend twice as long dining together.

To be fair, the study is by Giovanni Rana, an Italian fresh pasta-maker, so they would say that, but I get the point.

The study into the eating habits of 2,000 people revealed that the average UK family dining table will see impromptu naps, heated rows and admin (the equivalent of 236 eight-hour work shifts!), which all adds up to 202 days over the course of an adult lifetime. But with nearly 80per cent of Brits surveyed admitting they don’t eat together, it seems the dinner table could be under threat, with a detrimental effect on family life.

Clinical psychologist Dr Nihara Krause says: “Making time to incorporate a family meal together is a simple, enjoyable and effective way of building emotional resilience and social connection. It provides a regular opportunity for family members to communicate, which not only builds bonds but also aids emotional development.”

According to the boffins who have enough time on their hands to study such things, an average of five different topics of conversation is covered during the evening meal, with TV and film the most popular, followed by work, kids, school and holidays.

So how sad that family dining is becoming a thing of the past. It should be a cornerstone of the day; a time to catch up with loved ones and find out how their days have been, how they’re doing, what they’ve got planned.

Some of my most cherished childhood memories are sitting around the table with my family, chewing the fat, (literally, until I turned vegetarian), having a laugh and sharing snippets of our lives. There was a familiar ritual that went with family meals - helping to lay the table, chatting to my mother in the kitchen, the air filled with steam and early evening Radio 4, calling everyone down from their various corners of the house, and arguing over whose washing-up night it was.

TV dinners were a rare treat, and only ever at weekends.

Now it seems many families spend five nights a week eating on the sofa, in front of the telly, and it’s not uncommon for children to take meals to their bedrooms. Why can’t the TV be switched off at meal-times? Don't children - and adults - spend enough time in front of screens already?

Those depressing sponsors’ adverts on Emmerdale, showing real families watching and commenting on the soap as they tuck into their tea, don’t help. One mother perches on the arm of a sofa, her meal balanced on her knee, as her two young sons sit beside her. Another family, sitting on the couch with plates on their laps, gawp at the TV with vacant stares, pausing briefly to shovel chips into their mouths.

We all enjoy the occasional TV dinner, but on a regular basis it's lazy and soulless. And with evidence suggesting that eating on the sofa can lead to obesity - while sitting at the table promotes good manners, social interaction and wellbeing - flopping on the couch at tea-time is serving up a whole plateful of trouble for the next generation.

Now, please may I leave the table...?

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