New research into Irish family meal times has revealed that the average time Athlone families spend together over the course of a week enjoying family meals is a maximum of 50-60 minutes.
When broken down, that is an average of only eight minutes per day. A number of factors such as working long hours and family pressures have taken their toll on family meal times, resulting in a serious lack of time available to families to spend quality time and enjoy each other’s company over a home cooked meal.
The survey was released this week by Uncle Ben’s as part of their Begin with Ben campaign.
Of those surveyed, 25 per cent said they spend a maximum of 20 minutes together per week; a further 20 per cent said they would spend 25 minutes together, another 20 per cent said they would spend up to 60 minutes, whilst 10 per cent said they would spend between 30 and 45 minutes together.
Not surprisingly, the one day of the week that Irish families spend the most time together over a family meal is Sunday. Over 45 per cent of those surveyed said they would spend up to 60 minutes together on a Sunday; whilst Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days families spend the least amount of time together.
Uncle Ben’s has teamed up with well known dietician, Aveen Bannon, to launch the Begin with Ben campaign which seeks to get Irish people to re-think their meal times.
