New research reveals that under half (43%) of families sit down and eat together and a third of people eat their daily meals on the sofa.
The YouGov research by Readly digital magazine and newspaper app found that dinner is the top meal to spend time together (85%), with breakfast and lunch more grab and go style as it is being shared by just 7% of respondents.
On average, most people (37%) spend 20-29 minutes eating together, however almost one in 10 (8%) spend 45 minutes to 1 hour eating together and 29% spend less than 20 minutes.
As a nation of foodies, over two thirds (69%) said they enjoy cooking and over half (51%) consider themselves to be head chef in the household. Whilst gender equality is believed to be in place when it comes to cooking, 61% of women said they hold responsibility for cooking the meals in comparison to 39% of men. A third (27%) said it is a shared responsibility with their partner.
Chris Crouchman, head of content at Readly, said: “With busy lives, office days, working from home patterns and extracurricular activities and clubs, there is limited time to sit down together as a family but it’s great to see that dinner time is a moment people are able to connect about their day and topics affecting their lives.
“It’s interesting to see that hobbies and interests, the news and work are the top discussion themes however travel and problems also feature highly. Apps like Readly are a great source of inspiration for mealtime conversation with all the latest news and magazine categories, there’s endless topics to fuel good chat.”
Those who sit down and eat together do so because they believe it is a good way to spend quality time together (39%), a good chance to talk about the day or any issues that need resolving (19%) and it gives the family a good structure (14%), shows the research of over 2,000 people by the magazine app.
Readly is a digital magazine and newspaper app offering subscribers access to over 8,000 titles as part of its monthly subscription. Visit www.readly.com for more information.
