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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

 

3A Meals and Food

• What did you find helpful or interesting in this section of the film?
• How do meals work in your own family?
• What can make meal times hard? What can make things work better?

 

3B Activities and Celebrations

• What did you find helpful or interesting in this section of the film?
• What do your children like to do in their free time?
• Do you manage to do any activities together as a family? Are there any special celebrations you have as a family?

 

SOME KEY IDEAS FROM THE SESSION

There are so many feasts and celebrations in the Christian year. It’s built into the Christian calendar: we have Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, times of fasting and times of feasting.

Each family needs to celebrate, when you can be together in special ways. It might be a celebration with a capital C – a birthday or a holiday. Or it might simply be making time for a family meal, going for a walk, or having some family prayer at the end of the day. I wonder what works for you and your family.

Eating together, each day, without the TV or computer on, can bring so many blessings to family life. It gives your children time with you, and time with each other. It allows you to listen, to talk, and to share things. It gives rhythm and regularity to each day, and to the week – which is so important for the children. It puts the brakes on the constant rushing of modern life.

Eating together gives space for personalities to grow, for language to develop, for ideas to emerge. It gives a simple way of praying together, if you say grace before meals, and pray in thanksgiving after them. And you make sure that the children are eating well!

This is hard for many people. There are activities after school. Perhaps you have shift-work. The children want to go out or do homework or watch TV. Or the simple fact is that you are not in the habit of eating like this, and it seems like a big hassle to force everyone to sit together. But the long-term benefits are absolutely huge. Regular meals together – or as regular as is possible for you – are one of the keys to good family life.

It’s good that children have lots to do. It’s also good that they have time just to do their own thing, or to do nothing. Sometimes they just need the freedom to play and decide what to do with their time. Some of their best ideas come when children are bored!