Sitting down for dinner

Many families no longer dine together regularly. Their communication can be patchy and as a result relationships in the family suffer. 

The traditional Sunday roast hasn’t been a practice in many households for decades but neither has regular mealtimes as a family. Children are busy on their smartphones or playing video games on their computers and mum and dad are otherwise engaged. 

It is not healthy for families or individuals to not communicate. As we witnessed during the pandemic lockdowns, people suffer mentally if interaction with others is restricted or severely limited. 

Majellan Media has always been about helping families be the best that they can be. For more than 70 years we have assisted families with issues that are close to their hearts. Firstly, through The Majellan magazine and in more recent times through Dial a Prayer, Figuring out Families podcasts, Prayers and Reflections and Faith onLine.

So, we are on a mission to reunite families at the dinner table and therefore are pleased to announce the launch of The Dinner Table initiative with strategies to help families reconnect and communicate more effectively. 

We are calling it the The Dinner Table as we want to help families be closer, sharing and loving. The dining table is not only an area for eating but a gathering place.  

Each week we want to share ideas that will help make gathering around the table enjoyable and meaningful for all members of your family and we will invite you to share your ideas and what has worked – and not worked for you. 

You could send us a photo of your family around the table sharing a meal, saying a prayer, playing a game of cards or talking about the day you have had.  

As part of this initiative each issue of our weekly Newsletter and The Majellan magazine will have a section titled The Dinner Table where people can also share recipes or family anecdotes. A series of podcasts around this theme is also planned while weekly social media posts will be an important feature. 

Please join us at The Dinner Table. It’s a place where you can gather as a family. 

Conversation Starters

One way of reuniting around the dinner table is to chat. Here are some tips on how to begin a conversation with a parent/s or sibling/s.

• Name five reasons you’re glad to be alive.
• If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
• If you had a time machine for a day, what would you do with it?
• What’s your favourite song? Why?
• What do you want to be when you grow up and why?
• What’s your favourite movie? Why?
• If you could go anywhere you wanted for a holiday, where would you go and why?
• If you could have a conversation with anyone in history, who would it be?
• What would you want to ask them?
• If your best friend could be anyone from a book you have read, who would it be?
• What is your earliest memory?
• What are you most proud of?
• Is there anything about you that inspires other people in any way?
• Would you rather live in a castle, on a boat, or on a cloud?
• If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would you tell yourself?
• If you could go forward in time and give your older self advice, what would you tell yourself? 
• What is a quality you wish you could have more of?
• If you could ask anyone for help, who would it be and why?

For more details go to: https://majellan.media/the-dinner-table/

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