Where Has Family Time Gone? In Search of Joint Family Activities and the Role of the Family Meal in 1966 and 1999

Abstract

The idea that family meal time is disappearing is gaining growing attention in Western societies. This article investigates to what extent family time has decreased and what place the family meal has within family time. Belgian time-budget data gathered in 1966 and 1999 were used to answer these research questions. Analyses show parents were spending less time together as a family and also on family meals, especially on working days. Nevertheless, the growing number of dual-earner families was not responsible for the decline in family meal time between 1966 and 1999.

Consuming family quality time: the role of technological devices at mealtimes

“…There are different ways of spending quality time, including travelling (Lyons and Urry, 2005), sporting activities (Holt, 1998), mealtimes (Mestdag and Vandeweyer, 2005;Murcott, 1997), and other consumption events (Wallendorf and Arnould, 1991;DeVault, 2000). Our interest is on quality time that is set aside for paying full and undivided attention to the family meal (Douglas, 1975;Murcott, 1997).…”

“…Our study has captured technological objects which contribute to fundamentally new family mealtime practices and how they do so, given that life within the nuclear family has been considered an important ideal in western society in the 1850s (Mestdag and Vandeweyer, 2005). Our second connected point relates to the meanings carried by these technological devices when integrated within family quality time.…”

“…Silverstone and Hirsch (1994) suggests that technology does not "mediate the individuals personal relationships with society; it has come to mirror the individual persons consumption of society" (p. 3). In fact the idea that family meal time is disappearing is gaining growing attention in western societies (Mestdag and Vandeweyer, 2005), as time becomes increasingly scarce (Southerton, 2003). In this context, Mestdag and Glorieux (2009), show that the decline in the family meal is largely due to the changing structure of households, with the proportion of households with a partner or children decreasing in Belgium and other countries.…”

“…Consumer culture research has examined extensively the notion of family quality time, and focused more on the differences across men and women in terms of time spent at work (Fiese et al, 2006), lack of family time driven by consumption desires (Mestdag and Vandeweyer, 2005), pursing leisure activities (Vandewater and Lee, 2009), and how mothers and fathers balance work and home responsibilities (DeVault, 2000). Whilst Russell et al (2004) suggest that technology, in the form of television programmes and their characters can become an obsession with which viewers constantly interact and around which they model their lives, there is sparse literature relating to how technology impacts on the time that parents spend with their children at mealtimes.…”

“…Although studies have shown how technology is transforming the home (Venkatesh, 1996), the practices surrounding our interaction with technology at mealtimes remain virtually uncharted. Given that the amount of time spent on family meals, especially weekday family dinners, has declined significantly during the past 30 years (Mestdag and Vandeweyer, 2005), there is silence on how technology impacts on parent-child mealtime interactions. What we need to understand is the relationship 1164 BFJ 116,7 between these practices and family quality time.…”