Eat Dinner TOGETHER!
I grew up in a house where having dinner as a family was a regular event. My Dad was a cop, and he worked shifts for much of his career and all of my pre-teen years. If he was on the evening shift, Mom would have dinner ready at 4 p.m. so that we could eat together. If he worked nights, she’d adjust our schedules and meals accordingly. Sometimes, he’d even stop by the house on his dinner break to eat with us with his radio squawking on his belt.
I’ve carried this “tradition” of family meals into my own family. We eat together whenever possible. We used to eat dinner really early (by 5 p.m.) because my husband worked extremely early hours which required him to hit the sack by around 7:30 p.m. His schedule recently changed, and he’s seldom home before 7 p.m. these days. Guess what — we now gather at the table around 7:30 p.m. for dinner. (It’s amazing how much more my toddler eats now that she is ABSOLUTELY STARVING at dinner time.)
The benefits of sharing meals together have been lauded through the years. According to GatherRoundtheTable.com, a recent study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University corroborated many previous studies and found that the more often children and teens eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use drugs!
In fact, children and teens who have frequent family meals:
· are at half the risk for substance abuse compared to teens
who dine with their families infrequently.
· are less likely to have friends or classmates who use illicit
drugs or abuse prescription drugs.
· have lower levels of tension and stress at home.
· are likelier to say they can confide in their parents.
· are likelier to get better grades in school.
· are more likely to be emotionally content and have positive
peer relationships.
· have healthier eating habits
· are at lower risk for thoughts of suicide
· are less likely to try marijuana or have friends who use
marijuana.
Insisting that family dinnertime was a must is something Nikki Stauffer learned from an early age and then continued with her own family. “By gathering children around the dinner table every night,” Stauffer explains, “our parents taught us that there is so much more to share than just a meal. It’s the place to strengthen bonds, build personal character and encourage each other. Not only did we each have our own ’seat’ (that no one else dare take), we had a ’spot’ in the family that no one could replace.”
When friends and other parents she met seemed to think this was a novel idea, Stauffer founded GatherRoundTheTable.com as a way to encourage other parents to have a family dinner every night (or as often as possible). She had seen firsthand the value and importance of family dinners before learning the statistics noted above. These studies just encouraged her to do her part through her web site.
The site, which began as a grassroots movement, has steadily gained momentum. Today, the site offers podcast interviews with celebrities, authors and parenting experts, articles and recipes submitted by many of the guests on the weekly podcast show.
While there are many parenting sites that offer a wonderful array of information, GRTT focuses primarily on the family table and its importance in the growth and development of our children.
In addition to gathering families around the table, GRTT also wants to encourage gathering friends around the table as well. Deep and binding friendships are as important to everyone’s well being as family members. So welcoming friends of the children, friends of the parents, even neighbors or others you might want to get to know better, is also advocated. Whether it is to enjoy a home-cooked meal or a delivered pizza, this brief time together offers everyone a safe haven from the world around us, encouraging deeper bonds and relationships that help sustain us through difficult times, and let us rejoice in accomplishments both large and small.
I like these ideas. How about you? What methods do you employ to make family dinner time happen in your home?
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#1 Sharon Melton on December 23, 2009:
I totally agree with families all eating together, it has always been a tradition in our family. It was not easy, but YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN. So many families now have both parents working (I did also a lot of years) and use this as an excuse to say it’s impossible, with working and their children envolved in all kinds of after school activities, but all three of mine were also very involved in after school events and you can still make it work, it’s not always easy changing you’re eating time, but the kids don’t seem to have a problem with it so why should the parents.
Great article, hope everyone reads it and realize how important it is.