It’s so easy amidst our busy lives raising kids to underestimate the importance gathering together around the dinner table. Leisurely family dinners often seem like a luxury of the past in this overscheduled age of carpooling, sports practices, music lessons, PTA meetings, and late-night conference calls. And while it might be easier to have grab-and-go pizza or swing by for fast food on the way to soccer practice, making time to sit down and eat together remains important for a variety of reasons – from family bonding to communication to mental and physical health.
Make it family policy to sit down to family dinners at least four times a week, even if not every member of the family can be there for the entire time. Research conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/templates/Home.aspx?articleid=287&zoneid%2032) has found that sit-down family dinners not only lead to more healthy eating habits for your entire family, but also impact on kids’ behaviors both in and outside of school due to the conversations and connectivity that takes place at the table. Strikingly, teens who eat dinner with their families are 40% more likely to get good grades, as well as 42% less likely to engage in underage drinking, 59% less likely to smoke, and 66% less likely to use drugs. They are also much less likely to suffer from depression, fight with other kids, get in trouble at school, and engage in promiscuous behavior. In a related study, researchers found that children who ate dinner with their families every day or on most days were 15% less likely to be overweight than children who never or only sometimes ate dinner with another family member (http://www.nutritionalwellness.com/archives/2005/nov/11_family.php).
Dinners together also allow families to connect, share stories, discuss important topics, provide support for each other, get involved in each others’ lives, laugh together, and generally just bond in a way that few other times in our busy lives allow. Dinner not only brings families together, but those conversations build the core base of family bonding.
So while it’s sometimes hard to carve out an hour each evening for a little family time, clearly it’s well worth the effort. Skip the drive-through or trays in front of the TV and find out what’s going on with your kids today. It will have more of an effect on their lives than you think.
