The frequency of people having meals with family members is decreasing dramatically due to a lack of time. This trend may damage the family relationship and reduce the sense of satisfaction in the whole society.

Heavy workload and hectic working schedules are major causes of this trend. The competition in workplaces is becoming increasingly intensive as more and more people migrate into megacities. People who are afraid of losing their jobs have business trips, run meetings frequently and work late every day to improve the trust of employers and retain work. Tremendous working pressure restrict the time they spend on family activities including enjoying a rich dinner, which may consumes a lot of time as they have to prepare food by themselves.

One problem of the reducing numbers of family meals is that the family bonding may be damaged. In Asian countries, traditionally, having lunches is regarded as a way to develop a harmonious family relationship and improve mutual understanding between family members as they can communicate their ideas, life and work during dinner time. A decline in family meals means that the opportunity for a family to boost their ties is lost. Without family support, people may feel a sense of loneness and isolation. The happiness of the whole society will have a drop as they cannot celebrate their success and talk about their difficulties with their parents and other relatives, When a family relationship is disappearing, Members of the society are unable to live a happy and satisfying life.

In conclusion, people skip family meals in order to adapt to the competitive working world, but this can be a challenge to a family relationship as well as the level of social happiness.