Watch: A Powerful Video Gives Families A Much Needed Wake-Up Call

February 27th, 2016

Awake Goy

Dead or alive, who would you most like to have dinner with?

It’s a question that many of us have been asked before. I personally have had it posed to me a number of times, both by friends when bored and even once on an awkward first (and ultimately last) date.

When asked, most of us will draw upon our memory banks to come up with people of influence, celebrity crushes, or in the case of a first date scenario, the name of a person that will make us seem as sophisticated and interesting as possible.

The question seemingly has no right or wrong answer, but a social experiment run in Australia by Master Foods left parents feeling as if they managed to answer incorrectly. For the experiment, the above-mentioned question was first posed to parents and then later to their children, each time without the other being around to influence their response.

While I’m sure a number of other participants that didn’t make the final commercial cut didn’t give the answer the filmmakers were looking for, the fact that these families did is quite powerful. Check it out:

If you have children, when is the last time that you had a proper family dinner? If you don’t have children, what meals from your childhood stand out the most?

In my case, almost every memorable meal I can recall from my childhood involves my immediate family gathering around the table together. Even if the strongest element to the memory is me pretending to eat a green vegetable, the common ingredient in each recollection is still family.

Living in a world where so many of us are overwhelmed with work and responsibility, it’s important that we continue to make time for the things that matter. As this commercial shows us, sharing meals with our loved ones may just be one of those things.

Let this commercial inspire you to arrange a family meal at least once a week, even if it needs to be out at a restaurant. It may feel like an added load onto your already full schedule, but it will likely garner the opposite effect, having a positive impact on everyone involved.

Bonus: To take family time to another level, ban the use and presence of technology!