Writing Task 2: Today family members do not eat meals together

Writing Task 2

Today family members do not eat meals together. Is this a positive or negative trend.

Sample Answer – Band 9

In the past, meals were considered a precious moment for all members to congregate. However, the fact presents that there has been a tendency for people living in a house to have repasts separately. From my own perspective, this can lead to adverse development. This essay will elaborate more on the reasons for the bad influences.

First of all, each household has its own preferences for flavour and cooking. If the family gathers together, the habitual repetition is maintained constantly. Nonetheless, when each person has his or her distinctive time of eating, this daily routine might suffer negative changes as the family members are discouraged from making meals. This then will trigger a bad habit of eating improperly, which results in detrimental effects on health. For instance, a typical family will have dinner at a particular moment together. Due to work, they no longer spend time with one another in the evening and gradually adapt themselves to a new convention. They may not eat the same food, or even just stay hungry because of their laziness. Therefore, that all members spend time on their repasts irregularly can cause damage to their own health in the long run.

Secondly, gathering around for meals is a way to connect people and to release stress during the day since one can tell others about the incidents that happened. Hence, without this daily activity, individuals are more likely to be prone to depression. They have no one to confide in or to empathise with them when facing hurdles. This makes a person feel lonely and raises his or her mental problems. For example, if you live with your parents, it is easier to share how you feel, especially during repasts, because you know that they will support you unconditionally. Nevertheless, this cannot happen when you stay unconnected with other relatives.

In conclusion, eating together plays a crucial role in well-being and mental health. Thus, gathering around the table for dinner should be a regular habit so that one can be healthy physically and mentally.

340 words

Sample Answer – Band 7.5

Unlike in the past when the family gathered to have a meal together, household members nowadays tend to eat at different times and places. This essay will look at the reason for this and explain why this is a negative evolution.

To begin with, there are several causes behind this trend. First of all, each person in the family might have a distinct schedule. For instance, working parents often leave home early in the morning and sometimes come home late at night. Meanwhile, children usually have to go to extra classes or join in several extracurricular activities after school. Therefore, flexible breakfast or dinner time should be applied. Additionally, not every family is living together. People in modern life tend to choose to stay in nuclear families, where there are only parents and their children. Because of this, all the generations could not have meals together on a daily basis due to the distance. They are more likely to reunite at weekends or on holidays.

This tendency, in my opinion, is detrimental. One of the primary cons is that it affects the closeness of family members. Dinner is often the time that everyone sits back at the end of the day and talks about their day, work, study, and so on. By canceling this small family reunion, the understanding between family members might be reduced and the generation gap could be enlarged. Furthermore, parents could not control what their children consume daily. When eating out without parents’ supervision, a lot of kids would choose fast food or street food. This, because of grease, sanitation, and other factors, could adversely affect children’s health.

To conclude, there are many factors that could lead to this trend. I believe the drawbacks it brings to people’s lives are more than we could imagine.