The family meal as an ideal: Children’s perceptions of foodwork and commensality in everyday life and feasts

Abstract

The present article concerns meals from the point of view of children, focusing on structural and sociocultural aspects of meals in a Western context in general, and Sweden in particular. The aim was to study children's perceptions of meals with regard to what, where and with whom meals are eaten and how meals are made. The method used was an internet‐based, ethnological questionnaire, which is a qualitative method in which participants share their experiences and values regarding a certain topic of interest in writing. A hundred and twelve Swedish children were included. The children almost exclusively chose to write about family meals. These meals were described as well‐structured and organized, and were often portrayed in an idealized way, with family members sharing proper meals at home, spending an enjoyable time together with a nice atmosphere and good conversation. The children made a distinction between everyday meals and festive meals, where the main differences were that festive meals were more prone to include extended family and friends besides the nuclear family, and were described in a more exceptional way with regard to what is served and mealtime conditions. The article concludes that the family meal functioned as a way to construct the family and as a site where children acquire norms and values about meals and family identity, but they did so in an active way, by breaking rules and by challenging norms, thereby also contributing to change. The changing nature of the family meal was also seen in an extended proper meal and the commensal aspects surrounding mealtime, as commensality included both commensal eating and commensal foodwork.

Assessing Commensality in Research

“…Among the identified papers on commensality assessment, 51 papers were categorized as qualitative. These were put into subcategories, such as qualitative interviews ( Table 2 ) [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ] and ethnological studies ( Table 3 ) [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], log book plus interview ( Table 4 ) [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] case studies ( Table 5 ) [ 52 , 53 ] and diverse methods ( Table 6 ) [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , …”

“…One of the most common themes on the qualitative papers was in regards to family eating [ 35 , 37 , 44 , 48 , 56 , 57 , 62 ]. None of these papers investigated how to implement commensality in research, but still discussed how to understand commensality in the use of technology during meals, family rites, parents/mothers and, family activities and class.…”

Relationships Between Work-to-Family Conflict and the Food Domain for Dual-Earner Parents With Adolescent Children

“…A second gender-specific result was that, while the WtoFC → SWFoL association was of similar strength (following Cohen, 1988 ) in both parents, mothers showed significantly lower SWFoL than fathers. It can be hypothesized that, for women, WtoFC undermines their fulfillment of gender expectations, as food-related tasks and family meals are predominantly attributed to women (Persson Osowski and Mattsson Sydner, 2019 ; Schnettler et al, 2021b ). This trend is also reflected in the result showing that both mothers and fathers in this sample cooked during the week, but mothers spent significantly more hours on this activity than fathers.…”

“…Mothers may also get more emotionally involved in their children's lives (Kinkead et al, 2017 ). Moreover, in Latin American countries, mothers are attributed larger responsibilities than fathers on food-related tasks (Persson Osowski and Mattsson Sydner, 2019 ; Schnettler et al, 2021b ), and on child discipline around mealtimes (Schnettler et al, 2021b ). Hence, even if the father is present for family meals, mothers take a more prominent role that affords them greater interactions with their children, increasing their SWFoL.…”

“…This perception may derive from upholding traditional family gender roles, in which mothers spend more time on childcare and housework than fathers, whereas fathers complete more hours on paid work than mothers (Yucel and Latshaw, 2020b ). Food is a relevant domain in which to explore the effects of WtoFC as all food-related tasks in the household are considered the mother's responsibility (Persson Osowski and Mattsson Sydner, 2019 ; Schnettler et al, 2021b ), with stronger demands in lower gender-equity contexts, such as Latin American regions (Schnettler et al, 2021b ). Furthermore, daily food-related chores and parenting practices can be sources of disagreement and arguments between parents and adolescents (Martin-Biggers et al, 2014 ; Matias and Recharte, 2021 ).…”