What is meal time for your family? Do you sit together around a table, or are you sat in front of the TV watching the Simpsons, like us. I love dinner time as it is one of the times we all get to sit together, whether it be on the dinning room table or in the lounge - the two older boys will ask now and then if they can eat their dinner upstairs in their bedroom, but we always discourage that and say no, as we believe dinner should be eaten together as a family. But what do you talk about around the dinner table? Do you struggle to get a conversation going with your kids? Recently Goodfella's conducted some interesting research on family conversation around dinner time.
The research by Goodfella’s Pizza, which studied 1,000 children aged 6-16 and 2,000 adults to find out about their mealtime habits, revealed that nearly a third (31%) of parents struggle to start a conversation with their children at mealtimes because they simply don’t know what to talk to them about. Instead, they are reverting to unoriginal opening lines to try and engage with their brood, with “How what your day at school?” and “Have you done your homework?” topping the list of go-to phrases.
· 31% of parents don’t know what to talk to their kids about and 58% of mums and dads admit that their kids are bored of their tired chat· “How was your day at school?” tops the list of parents’ most unpopular conversation starters · One third of 6-15 year olds questioned said they would behave better at dinnertime if they were interested in the conversation· 1 in 5 children name Harry Styles and One Direction as their favorite topic of conversation during mealtimes· List of conversation topics kids want to discuss instead, split by age group, created to start families chatting.Kids’ top 10 conversation topics as voted for by 1,000 children: Video games (60%)Favourite bands and pop artists including One Direction (55%)You Tube videos and social media (41%)Films (40%)TV programmes (35%)Favourite football team (33%)Sports activities / PE (30%)Music videos (29%)Playground gossip and crazes (28%)Things I’ve made (21%)As part of the Goodfella's Kid's conversation station experiment, we were given two pizza's to have for dinner (the boys favorite - so a good start), and a set of questions (as below) to ask and engage into conversations with Lewis and Liam.
KIDS CONVERSATION STATIONS: 6-12 year olds (Lewis who is 11)
- I heard the Justin Bieber’s new song earlier - are you and your friends all Beiliebers? "NO, we don't like Justin Bieber" - Lewis wasn't too impressed by this question, he looked at me like I had insulted him.
- We can’t wait to watch the new LEGO film… "Not really, I would rather wait for it to come out on DVD" We discussed what the film would be like, and if we thought we would like it or not. Lewis compared the movie to the Xbox games that they play.
- We heard that Match Attax cards are really cool – what are they all about..? "Not any more, but I used to, the only good thing was when we used to swap them"
- What’s your favorite video game at the moment - "Minecraft, playing survival with my mates on Minecraft is the best - you have to build items, collect materials and that. The hardest material to find is emeralds, it used to be diamonds, but since the change it is now emeralds" He told us a little about what he had built recently.
- If you could be any footballer, which one would you be? - "Frank Lampard, a Chelsea player of course, because he is the top goal scorer for Chelsea of all time" We then discussed football and different players.
- So, Harry Styles and Kendall Jenner, are they on or off? "How would I know about that, I know I am on Twitter a lot, but this is not my interest" Liam was not impressed I had asked him that question.
- I love Perry’s dress in the new Little Mix video, do you like it or her? Not really, not my thing.
- What are your favorite Vine videos at the moment, we love… - He Laughed and then explained on this one video is of an Australian kid he has a 2 liter Pepsi bottle and speaks in a funny voice. We then discussed other Vine videos they liked and why it made them laugh.
- What do you think about Flappy Birds being banned? - "I kept it on my iPad, but it was not banned, the creator just took it off, he couldn't handle the abuse he got over it" We talked about the game and how frustrating it is, and how he likes to keep up with his mates on it.
- Who are the best people to follow on Instagram/ twitter? - "Football stuff mainly, but Arsenal is my favorite and I follow most footballers from Arsenal" We then discussed the different players, and who he follows on twitter, and he asked me who I follow.